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Podcast One presents the Steve Austin Show

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classics. All right everybody welcome from Steve

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Austin Show, coming to you from the

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Broken Skull Ranch, riding down a dirt

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road in my 96 Ford Bronco. We

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got the windows open. If you hear

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the wind blowing through here, my air

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conditioners broke. And I've had so many

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problems with the maintenance issues out here

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at the Broken Skull Ranch. I ain't

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got time to haul this damn thing

0:23

in and get the air conditioning fixed.

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Welcome to the family friendly show. This

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is Steve Austin. Riding down the road

0:29

with my good buddy Ted Fowler 361

0:31

on Twitter and I told Teddy I

0:33

said hey man I got to make

0:35

up about 30 minutes of content for

0:37

the Part 2 of my Bray White

0:39

podcast and so I said man Teddy I

0:42

don't know what to talk about we

0:44

just got finished with Thanksgiving and that

0:46

was a big blowout. Are you glad

0:48

Thanksgiving's over? Yeah very much so. God

0:51

dang man I had a blast my

0:53

family was down here my mom my

0:55

dad my sister her kids I guided

0:57

my niece Emma on a hunt and

1:00

she killed a wonderful nine-point buck thing

1:02

I probably go you know between 135

1:04

and I think 138 and it was

1:07

fun watching her do that we couldn't

1:09

put Neil on anything and then my

1:11

brother and his wife came down you were

1:13

here And it was a big blowout.

1:15

Then they busted out the guitars last

1:18

night, started singing. But dude, my family

1:20

has been there, been here for five

1:22

days. And man, when you're entertaining, you're

1:24

entertaining, I drink so many damn beers,

1:26

ate so many pecan pies, pumpkin pies,

1:29

and all the turkey and dressing. Dude,

1:31

we gotta go back to six pack

1:33

Saturday night because now I gotta get

1:35

my weekly beer in. I'll go back

1:37

to my little one glass of wine.

1:40

How are you feeling on the physical

1:42

level? Because we've been able to start

1:44

stringing consistency together with

1:46

our workouts, but my nutrition plan

1:49

has went out the window. Physically, I

1:51

mean, I feel good. I feel good

1:53

with the workouts we're having. It's just

1:55

all of the food. You know, like

1:57

I said yesterday, I feel like I'm

1:59

carrying to get back on my water because

2:01

normally in LA or whatever, I always like

2:03

to drink about a gallon of water. A

2:05

lot of people don't drink enough water. Man,

2:07

I'm probably drinking like one of those 12

2:09

ounce bottles a day and that ain't quite

2:11

copacetic. And then my day in my IPA

2:13

beer is a little bit high calorie. Now

2:15

I don't really feel like I've gained a

2:17

ton of weight. It's just the fact that

2:19

after I got through with Broken Skull Challenge,

2:21

gearing up to come down here and then

2:23

when I got down here, it took me

2:26

a week to just de -stress and start

2:28

relaxing and getting into a groove because I'm

2:30

coming from LA in the city, that routine

2:32

that I had, and that work schedule from

2:34

two back to back reality shows. And now

2:36

it's almost like I come out here and

2:38

I don't know whether, you know, how to

2:40

get back on track. Jumped on the mower

2:42

a little bit, started cutting, we got a

2:44

lot of grass to cut. And you're down

2:46

here for the long haul now for the

2:48

rest of deer season, right? Correct. Correct, yeah.

2:50

Until what mid to tail into January, it's

2:53

a pretty good little vacation. Now we've got

2:55

deer season going a full swing here. Now

2:57

we haven't been seeing all of our good

2:59

deer yet. It's been so green. The

3:01

deer really aren't coming to corn, but yesterday I

3:04

was sitting in a particular deer stand and saw,

3:06

you know, one of our bigger bucks, we've been

3:08

watching for a couple of years and man, I

3:10

was happy to see that deer because sometimes it's

3:12

so green out here in this brush country. Because

3:15

of all the rain that we've

3:17

had and we've been lucky to

3:19

get this rain, but we ain't

3:21

seeing the deer yet and I'm

3:23

thinking, hey man, where did all

3:25

of our deer go? So that

3:27

was a joyous moment and I

3:29

had my camera. I always carry

3:31

my camera to the deer stand

3:33

folks and I had this long

3:36

ass lens on there and I

3:38

thought I was getting these great

3:40

pictures. And for some reason somehow

3:42

I pushed a damn button on

3:44

that camera and all my pictures

3:46

look like it was just midnight

3:48

out there in broad daylight. And

3:50

you can barely see the horns

3:52

on one of the best deer

3:54

on the ranch. It felt like

3:56

someone kicked me in the stomach.

3:58

I was so damn, I was

4:00

mad as a damn hornet. Have

4:02

you seen anything good, Teddy? Some

4:04

decent deer, nothing on the top

4:06

shelf, but it's still early, it's

4:09

still hot. Let me make sure this recorder is still

4:11

going since you're... Oh yeah, man. Not only having problems with the

4:13

recorder, the camera too. God dang it, man. We lost 40 minutes

4:15

of content the other day and we turned that show and y'all

4:17

listened to that show. That was a damn good show. That was

4:19

a redo. But anyway, we got the record button. Hey Teddy, let's

4:21

switch gears here man. You and I know each other each other

4:23

about eight years. You've been a pro wrestling fan fan for how

4:25

wrestling. Long time, long time, 20, 25 years. Okay, we got a

4:27

little bit of time to kill here because I need two segments

4:29

before I continue my conversation with W.W.E. Superstar

4:31

Bray White. And let me go on

4:33

preface. I complained. on the last podcast

4:36

about how bad the quality was on

4:38

that podcast and people that listened to

4:40

it said no it really wasn't that

4:42

bad well that's because Stacey back at

4:44

podcast one in Beverly Hills cleaned it

4:47

up and took out all the distortion

4:49

and all the delays so what y'all

4:51

heard was a sweetened up version what

4:53

had happened because I had to call

4:55

in a conference line And Bray had

4:57

to call into a conference line. That

5:00

created that lag and that's why I was

5:02

working with and it was so hard to

5:04

have a conversation with a very articulate, eloquent,

5:06

intelligent guy like Bray Wyatt. It was like

5:09

pulling teeth on my end because of the

5:11

discombobulation with the sound. So after I talked

5:13

with Bray for about an hour and we

5:15

were looking to do a two-hour show, you

5:18

know, I hung up and I dialed back.

5:20

And I said, hey dude, I said, you

5:22

got another 30 minutes left in you. He

5:24

goes, hey man, I'm just happy to talk

5:26

to you. I got as much time as

5:29

you want. But the conversation today was

5:31

so frustrating because of the discombobulation and

5:33

the sound. What the people heard was

5:35

a sweet and up version. When I

5:37

was hearing was an audio cluster muck.

5:39

So I got a building a little

5:41

time. So I thought we'd shift gear

5:43

since you're a long time wrestling fan.

5:45

As long time wrestling. As long as you've

5:47

been, we talk wrestling. 10% of our conversations.

5:50

Yeah, correct. So since you've been a

5:52

longtime fan and you grew up in

5:54

the Phoenix area, what territory did you

5:56

grow up watching? And when did you first

5:58

fall in level pro wrestling? Man

6:00

my grandma used to watch it. I can

6:02

remember going over to her house. I can

6:04

remember the old-school wrestling magazines You know the

6:07

guys with the I remember how scarred up

6:09

their foreheads were from always you know cutting

6:11

themselves and I can remember my grandmother yelling

6:13

at the TV you know, getting all fired

6:16

up when a wrestling match was going on.

6:18

Well, let me ask something. If you saw

6:20

those old pictures of guys from all the

6:22

blade jobs that they're doing, I mean, like,

6:25

what did you think about that? At that

6:27

time in your life, I mean, you gotta

6:29

be thinking, you know, what the F? What

6:31

is wrong with these guys? Yeah. I thought

6:34

those guys were some of the meanest individuals

6:36

on the planet. I mean, they just, you

6:38

know, the way that they carried that bloody.

6:40

Like, holy cow man, I can see you

6:43

getting a bloody nose or a bloody lip,

6:45

but how hard you got to get hit

6:47

to have your forehead bleam! Well, what did

6:49

you enjoy? I just remember when I grew

6:52

up in Edna watching, and I told a

6:54

story so many times, I give you the

6:56

condensed version, changing channels, finding Houston wrestling, smoke

6:58

phil arena, two guys who was dimly lit,

7:01

and fighting over a championship goal belt. and

7:03

I was hooked. Duke's I wanted to believe

7:05

it was real right and at that point

7:07

for many years in my life it was

7:10

real and hell when I got into the

7:12

business in 89 you know Chris hadn't even

7:14

Chris Adams he got trained me didn't even

7:16

smart me up going into my first match

7:19

ever on television and working with Frogman LeBlanc

7:21

and that was when I just found out

7:23

that it was a work. When did you

7:25

finally realize something that was going on and

7:28

did you believe like I did that it

7:30

was totally real when you was a kid?

7:32

Oh, I totally believed it was real when

7:34

I was a kid, I think. You know,

7:37

into my 20s? Yeah. You know, honestly, that's

7:39

it. Yeah, yeah. And then when you like

7:41

in my 20s, it was kind of like,

7:43

okay, there's something going on. but I don't

7:46

know what's going on. Right, right. And then

7:48

I would hear the stories from the guys

7:50

in the sportorial. Okay, like if they want

7:52

to do a certain move, they tap the

7:55

guys wrist a few times. It's almost like

7:57

sending Morse code was the first way that

7:59

I heard. guys communicated in the ring was

8:01

tapping each other, which is not. I mean

8:04

sometimes if you squeeze the guy's wrist, that's

8:06

called giving him the office. Like when to

8:08

do something or are you okay, you know,

8:10

they just give you the office and let

8:13

you know they're okay. But there was no

8:15

tapping, there was no Morse code to be

8:17

found. I see I remember the first time

8:19

you told me that about, you know, squeezing

8:22

the guy's wrist, you know, to make sure

8:24

he was okay. you know I was just

8:26

flabber yes I was like you know man

8:28

I had no idea you guys did that

8:31

in the ring you know why why would

8:33

you worry about if the other guy you

8:35

know if you really truly hurt him yeah

8:37

but it makes sense I mean there's so

8:40

there's so much unseen stuff that goes on

8:42

that if you're sitting in your living and

8:44

watching it you got no idea you know

8:46

so it's cool to sit here and talk

8:49

you know talk with you about you about

8:51

you know talk with you about you about

8:53

you about it some questions you know Man

8:57

did you ever I mean really dislike a

8:59

guy just for whatever reason and have a

9:01

match with him and you know try to

9:03

try to hurt him? No man I never

9:06

did that. There's a couple of guys like

9:08

when I finally got a little bit of

9:10

stroke a stone cold that I chose not

9:12

to work with just because I didn't really

9:15

want to work with them but it wasn't

9:17

because it was really to protect my gimmick

9:19

than anything. or if I just didn't like

9:21

somebody, you know, that was when I had

9:24

the power that I could veto a storyline.

9:26

But there was really never any time I

9:28

got into a ring with anybody and really

9:30

in my whole life. I'm actually a pretty

9:33

friendly guy. A lot of people when they

9:35

watched Don't Call Steve Austin wouldn't think that,

9:37

but never with any intention to go out

9:39

there and try to hurt somebody. And then

9:42

again, you know, like man, I wasn't the

9:44

biggest guy in the territory. So I... There's

9:46

been a lot of guys that go in

9:48

there with that mentality and you know, they're

9:51

not, everybody kind of knows about them. You

9:53

know, certain guys, I won't mention these guys

9:55

in the past that would take liberty. because

9:57

they could. I was never that guy, man,

10:00

I just wanted to go out there and

10:02

not even really take a high percentage of

10:04

the match. I was always a guy that

10:06

wanted to go 50-50 with just about anybody

10:09

I got in the ring with, but when

10:11

I first came into WWF and I'm segueing

10:13

from your question, so no I never intentionally

10:15

went out there to ever hurt anybody because

10:17

you're giving a guy your body and he's

10:20

giving you his, so there has to be

10:22

that type of trust. But certainly you know

10:24

when I first rolled into WWF and I

10:26

was working with some of the guys that

10:29

I work with you know a lot of

10:31

those matches were 90-10 you know my percentage

10:33

of offense to theirs right to get over

10:35

so no to that question. Now what if

10:38

you what if the guy on the other

10:40

end had a chip on his shoulder with

10:42

you you know and you go in there

10:44

and you start calling you know calling the

10:47

match and you get a vibe that hey

10:49

you know what this guy is not working

10:51

you know with me how do you handle

10:53

you handle that? A shoot type attitude and

10:56

a work situation turns out to a bad

10:58

match. You know, a case in point, well,

11:00

Sean Michaels and Brett the hitman heart rubbed

11:02

each other the wrong way for a long

11:05

time. And, you know, like in their Iron

11:07

Man match, it was 60 minute match and

11:09

it was a hell of a match. And

11:11

I believe if, you know, I could ask

11:14

one of these guys and clarify this, but

11:16

I believe that Sean called 30 minutes of

11:18

that match and Brett called the other 30.

11:20

They called each other's, you know, you know,

11:23

you know, you know, you know, you know,

11:25

you know, you know, you know, you know,

11:27

you know, you know, and it turned out

11:29

being a good match and there's you can

11:32

see some real snug work in there but

11:34

it was all professional but those guys didn't

11:36

like each other at all and at one

11:38

time I got in a fight backstage but

11:41

anytime they went into the ring it was

11:43

totally professional I got a picture these havelina

11:45

yeah we're gonna enter the story I got

11:47

a long lens here on my thing I'm

11:50

a push-up now there they go I'll put

11:52

them a run-off okay we're driving around in

11:54

these ranch roads and havelinas run-off but any

11:56

time it's like If you got two guys

11:59

that go out there and don't want to

12:01

have a match or they don't like each

12:03

other, it's like, hey man, if I grab

12:05

you by your wrist and I say, hey

12:08

man. watch a clothesline and you don't want

12:10

to go on for a clothesline all you

12:12

got to do is hook the rope with

12:14

your right arm and say uh-uh you know

12:17

right start squatting on what I'm calling and

12:19

so that's just a compilation there's a famous

12:21

match and I can't remember the the house

12:23

and wise of what this went of how

12:26

it went down but it was Bruiser Brody

12:28

working with Lex Lugar in a cage and

12:30

then Brody started no selling Lugar's offense for

12:32

some reason And I think Lugar at this

12:34

time in his career might have been kind

12:37

of green and Lugar didn't know what a

12:39

crapper wine is, watch. And so he ends

12:41

up climbing out of the cage and you

12:43

can watch it on YouTube. And he climbs

12:46

out of the cage and leaves the ring

12:48

because he's scared of Bruce Brody because Bruce

12:50

Brody was a bad dude. And so that

12:52

was a case of something, you know, and

12:55

I can't remember if you read all the

12:57

little comments underneath that match on YouTube, what

12:59

was actually going on. Dude, to answer your

13:01

question, if you ain't got two guys out

13:04

there that want to cooperate, you ain't going

13:06

to have a good match. And so guys,

13:08

even if they don't like each other, they

13:10

can work snug. If a guy is lighting

13:13

you up too much, that's a potato. And

13:15

then, you know, finally, if, you know, I

13:17

was always real good about taking a couple

13:19

of potatoes, I'd give a guy several before

13:22

I sent back a receipt. and it was

13:24

never a mean-spirited way and I never thought

13:26

anybody was ever trying to take advantage of

13:28

me and even when we went to Japan,

13:31

you know, Japan guys are known as working

13:33

real stiff or snug and when I was

13:35

going over on my first trip I don't

13:37

have been in the business a couple years

13:40

so I was a little... I was wondering

13:42

how it was going to go down. And

13:44

Arne Anderson was on the same trip with

13:46

me down there. And of course, Arne had

13:49

been, I think he'd been to Japan a

13:51

couple of times and was obviously a very,

13:53

very good professional rush, one of my favorites.

13:55

And nobody ever tried to take advantage of

13:58

Arne. He was the enforcer. And he had

14:00

that credibility of that body of work that

14:02

he had, but nobody tried to stiff or

14:04

snug me and that if they did. I

14:07

like to work snug snug and stiff. wouldn't

14:09

really a big fan of strong style where

14:11

they club the hell out of each other

14:13

so that's about the extent of bad things

14:16

going now certainly there's gonna be other people

14:18

if you ask the same question they might

14:20

have went out there but you can count

14:22

on probably three fingers the amount of shoot

14:25

matches that happened in the pro in a

14:27

pro wrestling ring. You go back to some

14:29

of the Danny Hodge days when everybody, Danny

14:31

Hodge was a bad-ass wrestler out of Oklahoma.

14:34

He's legend. One of Jim Ross was good

14:36

friends. He was a golden gloves boxer and

14:38

he was, you know, what, a couple of

14:40

time all-American wrestler and Danny's probably what, some

14:43

odd years old. his grip, his hand strength

14:45

was so strong that if he just grabbed

14:47

you by the wrist like that, you would

14:49

go uncle. And that's how he won a

14:51

lot of his matches back in his amateur

14:54

days and he would, you could squeeze apples

14:56

and bust them. There's old legendary story of

14:58

him going into a hardware store and just

15:00

grabbing pliers and just crushing them by the

15:03

handles and breaking them. So there was a

15:05

couple times I think Danny Hodge had come

15:07

to Jesus meetings with some guys in the

15:09

ring and once they knew what was up.

15:12

they didn't proceed to try to you know

15:14

do anything to danny because danny was one

15:16

to solve his guys in the history of

15:18

the business did vence ever have to i

15:21

mean i get it everybody's a professional and

15:23

you're doing your job but i mean did

15:25

vence ever you know get involved after the

15:27

match you know and kind of say hey

15:30

you guys not gonna offer what happened here

15:32

why you know i'm sure there is a

15:34

lot of meetings about stuff that happened in

15:36

the ring i know One time Rick Flair

15:39

was working up in New York, working for

15:41

Vince, and I think he was working with

15:43

Savage, I could be mistaken, but nonetheless, you

15:45

know, for some reason at that time, Vince

15:48

had a little bit of a heart on

15:50

for Flair, and Flair didn't do exactly what

15:52

Vince had wanted. And you know, of course,

15:54

Rick Flair, you know, in my opinion, was

15:57

greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he's my

15:59

favorite. And so he kind of knows what's

16:01

going on. on and how to go about

16:03

doing it but he didn't follow venses specific

16:06

instructions and so they sent them back to

16:08

the ring and they did basically the same

16:10

damn match but did it to you know, Vince's

16:12

direction of what he wanted. So there's

16:14

been several times when promoters have had,

16:16

and Bill Watts, you know, Bill Watts

16:18

was legendary in Mid-South territory, and Jim

16:20

Ross could vouch for this. He would

16:22

tell you exactly what he wanted, and

16:24

it was, then you'd go out there

16:26

and paint the picture, but he would

16:28

give you the broad strokes of, hey

16:30

man, here's how it's going to go

16:33

down, and work your ass out, but

16:35

here's the finish, and here's what I

16:37

want to accomplish with this with this

16:39

match. Right, with this match. How do you

16:41

deal with, you know, in your mind, you

16:43

know the way that your character, you

16:45

know where your character is going?

16:47

You know how you want to

16:50

be, you know, viewed by the public?

16:52

When Vince, or, you know, whatever

16:54

promoter you were working for,

16:56

wants you to do something that

16:59

goes against the grain of where

17:01

you want to go, how receptive

17:03

are they to, you know,

17:05

your suggestion? As an outstanding

17:08

question. You've got to be able to

17:10

stick to your guns. It's like, you know, many

17:12

times in my career they say, hey man, we

17:14

want you to go out there and do this,

17:16

blah, blah, blah, whatever. And I just look at

17:18

them and say, hey man, my character wouldn't

17:21

do that. Right. You know, and I

17:23

can understand you want to push the

17:25

boundaries of the limits of some stuff.

17:27

It's like when I turned the hill,

17:30

I told it was able to jump

17:32

out of the box and do comedy

17:34

and all kinds of stuff that I

17:36

would have never done as an aggressive

17:39

baby face who worked with a hill

17:41

work style. But as far as knowing your

17:43

character, That's what's kind of lacking today with

17:45

regards to a lot of the WW superstars

17:47

are forced to go out there. And not

17:50

forced, it's a bad word. You know, a

17:52

lot of people don't have, they don't feel

17:54

they have the stroke or the weight yet

17:56

to say, hey, this is my character and

17:58

he, and I would. do that. When the

18:01

writers are saying no, we've been telling

18:03

you what to say, this is what

18:05

your character would say. So you've got

18:07

to have that belief and live that

18:09

character. Bray White's been an outstanding example

18:12

of someone who's been able to stand

18:14

up for his character because he's evolved

18:16

him to Bray White from Husky Harris,

18:18

third generation wrestler, and it's a political

18:20

tightrope that you walk, and there's etiquette.

18:22

and there's manners to how you argue

18:25

your side of it. You know, you

18:27

don't just go in there with no

18:29

stroke or just say, hey, F you,

18:31

I wouldn't do that. You know, you

18:33

gotta say, hey, you know, that sounds

18:35

cool, but I'm not really filling it

18:37

because my character would do this. It's

18:40

all about the relationship and how you

18:42

nurture and present your side of the

18:44

scenario. But yeah, I was famous for

18:46

doing that. And this is not really

18:48

on a character thing, but just a

18:50

big idea thing. We're about to shoot

18:53

Monday Night Raw. And I would roll

18:55

in and they say, Steve, this is

18:57

what you're doing. I say, no, no,

18:59

I ain't. And well, what do you

19:01

want to do? I don't know, but

19:03

I ain't doing that. I never would

19:06

offer up a suggestion or an alternative

19:08

game plan. And so a lot of

19:10

people thought AAA was blasting me. No,

19:12

he wasn't. He was telling the exact

19:14

truth truth. Did you don't get me

19:16

wrong? I couldn't be a prick when

19:19

I first got there as a ringmaster

19:21

You know, I walked to the ring

19:23

like a deaf mute with Ted DiBi

19:25

talking all that trash for me. So

19:27

you know, but when I could turn

19:29

into stone cold and I really believed

19:31

in myself and we started drawing money

19:34

That's when I stood up for myself.

19:36

Could you I mean, you know, the

19:38

management always or do they always want

19:40

to know a little bit of what

19:42

you're doing before you go out. I

19:44

mean, can you just be tight-lipped and

19:47

say, you know what, I ain't saying

19:49

nothing to nobody about anything until I

19:51

get in the ring and then it'll

19:53

be a surprise to everybody. Well, sometimes

19:55

you can still pull that surprise out

19:57

of your ass and do that. but

20:00

I mean these days I mean with

20:02

the way the cameras are working and

20:04

I don't know how many cameras they've

20:06

got running these days but you always

20:08

have your hard camera and like if

20:10

you if this steering wheel that I'm

20:13

holding in front of me this is

20:15

square okay the hard camera though the

20:17

one that's in the bleachers mounted might

20:19

be on this side so a lot

20:21

of guys will work to hard camera

20:23

and then you get all these other

20:26

cameras that are floating around and handheld

20:28

but there are so many different cuts

20:30

and you know if there's a specific

20:32

part of the match which they want

20:34

to make damn sure they don't miss

20:36

you know there there's there's some blocking

20:38

as they would you would say in

20:41

the acting but yeah there there's a

20:43

little bit of four one one exchange

20:45

these days away the business is there's

20:47

a lot of that so they know

20:49

good they know camera angles they kind

20:51

of have a grasp of what's gonna

20:54

happen but that being said you know

20:56

anything could happen at any time there's

20:58

a lot of guys who when they

21:00

when they'll pin a guy in the

21:02

ring They'll pin and when they go

21:04

for the pin, they're always looking at

21:07

the hard camera because they want their

21:09

face to be right there in the

21:11

hard camera. And I see when I

21:13

worked, I never worked for hard camera.

21:15

Ever. Right. They had eight cameras there.

21:17

And if you've got a handheld and

21:20

you know, we know the finish. It's

21:22

going to be a stunner or whatever

21:24

it's going to be. Someone's going to

21:26

be looking up for the lights. Right.

21:28

And I just. I never wanted to,

21:30

I had so many things going on

21:32

in my head and just from a

21:35

creative standpoint of listening to the crowd's

21:37

reaction and calling stuff on the fly

21:39

in the ring or working off a

21:41

fishbone menu of things that I knew

21:43

I was going to do and executing.

21:45

The last thing I ever wanted to

21:48

worry about was which way I was

21:50

facing and which way my opponent was

21:52

facing. I didn't care. Yeah. I didn't

21:54

care. That was one thing that I

21:56

didn't concern myself with. Interesting, interesting. Now

21:58

the riders, the number of riders today

22:01

is far greater than what it was

22:03

back when you were going? Yeah. Did

22:05

you ever try to hang out with

22:07

those guys? a beer let him hang

22:09

out with you as a person to

22:11

kind of get a feel for you

22:14

know how you are and maybe work

22:16

off of that? No man I never

22:18

really hung out with the riders too

22:20

much you know back in the day

22:22

and it's interesting because This podcast is

22:24

y'all are listed on Tuesday. I just

22:27

got finished interviewing Vincent Manwith on Monday,

22:29

which is on live. And so me

22:31

and Teddy are filming this the day

22:33

before. We're going to Tulsa tomorrow. But

22:35

this is afterwards as you watch that

22:37

and you listen to this. What was

22:39

the question? Oh, hanging out the riders.

22:42

Back in the day, you know, Vince

22:44

used to book the territory with Pat

22:46

Patterson and his mansion in Greenwich, is

22:48

a crib. I buy the swimming pool.

22:50

and they would just be out there

22:52

with a long ledger notebook with pencils

22:55

and they were like making matches and

22:57

doing cards and booking towns and you

22:59

know the TV kind of followed you

23:01

know what they were doing there on

23:03

the paper and it weren't really any

23:05

writers per se you know there was

23:08

no writers there were bookers you booked

23:10

it and then you knew your angle

23:12

because it was a setup from week

23:14

to week and Vince liked to book

23:16

he would love to book you know

23:18

all the way up to a year

23:21

year and a half in advance. Now

23:23

you're not making all the matches right

23:25

there, but he has a long running

23:27

picture about where he wants to go

23:29

with his world champ, where he wants

23:31

to go with his IC champ, his

23:33

tag champ. But then, you know, things

23:36

started changing, the business started moving faster,

23:38

you know, Monday Night Raw started coming

23:40

on, you got two hours of live

23:42

TV, and for a long time it

23:44

was still booking, but then you needed

23:46

riders to start, I don't, that's a

23:49

good question, because I was in the,

23:51

quote-unquote writers really came on board, but

23:53

I just thought it started Remembering you

23:55

know Brian Gerwich was one of the

23:57

main ones and some of the other

23:59

guys and before you knew it it

24:02

went from having maybe Four two or

24:04

three or four writers because there had

24:06

to be a start and now I've

24:08

heard tell as many is 2630 riders.

24:10

And so here's the thing man, I

24:12

know now it's turning to a three

24:15

hour live show, but 26 riders for

24:17

three hours of television, man, that just

24:19

seems a little extreme to me. Are

24:21

they writing the show the way they

24:23

want it to unfold or are they

24:25

writing for a specific wrestler? Both. And

24:28

then these ideas of pitched events. And

24:30

then Vince gives the blessing or no,

24:32

come up with something else. Hey, I'm

24:34

sitting there rolling down a dirt road

24:36

with Ted Fowler. We're going to take

24:38

a little break. We're coming back. As

24:40

he's asking the global icon and the

24:43

national treasure's questions, being a lifelong fan,

24:45

Ted Fowler, 361 on Twitter, we're coming

24:47

right back. You're listening to another classic

24:49

episode of the Steve Austin show, only

24:51

on Podcast One. Hey, it's

24:53

Adam Kroll from the Adam Krollo

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26:55

right, here we are riding down

26:57

the road in a green and

26:59

silver Ford Brago. I've turned the

27:01

microphone over Ted Fowler. We're talking

27:03

pro-restment before we get to the

27:05

second part of my conversation with

27:07

W-W-E-superstar, Bray-Wight. Fireweight, Teddy, what you

27:09

got? Question is, Bray-Wight. A majority

27:11

of the time when a character

27:13

changes from one of the next

27:15

to you from you know stunning

27:17

Steve to the ringmaster who who

27:19

calls that the wrestler himself getting

27:21

stale with what they're doing or

27:23

does management does Vince have a

27:25

light bulb come on and go

27:27

ban you know I got a

27:29

I got a new way that

27:31

I want you to go and

27:33

you got to be a different

27:35

person Well it can happen in

27:37

many ways and it's not always

27:39

Vince's idea. Now Vince, when I

27:41

pitch, let's talk about me for

27:43

a while. When Vince called me

27:45

on the phone I told my

27:48

tri-step on that tour of Japan

27:50

with Arn Anderson I just talked

27:52

about. So I'm busted up. I

27:54

go to ECW, I'm working, I'm

27:56

cutting promos, poly dangerously, Paul Hammond

27:58

helps me out tremendously. Phone rings.

28:00

pitches the idea of the ringmaster.

28:02

Okay, now the idea of the ringmaster had

28:04

been around for a long time. This was

28:06

a gimmick that they wanted to drop on

28:08

a guy and he was gonna be the

28:11

master of the ring. So anyway, he figures,

28:13

okay, Steve Austin guy is a mechanic, he

28:15

would be okay for this ringmaster, he would

28:17

be okay for this ringmaster, I did. And

28:20

I saw some of the old drawings from

28:22

back in a day and it was a

28:24

way more high-tech look and finished than what

28:27

I had when I had when I first

28:29

came in. the money green trunks was the

28:31

same color money that because Ted DiBiasi

28:33

the million dollar man was my

28:35

manager but i had hollywood blondes

28:38

boots on money green tights because and

28:40

they wanted me to wear singlet as

28:42

a as a ringmaster but i said homie

28:44

don't play that and wear no singlet and

28:47

so i didn't have any stroke but i

28:49

was gonna stroke myself and saying no singlet

28:51

so when i roll into uh... w w

28:53

f that was his idea and i knew

28:56

at six months it wasn't gonna work and

28:58

that's when I came up with a

29:00

stone cold thing. And so that's when I

29:02

pitched that to them. Now here's the thing

29:05

about Vince. He's always willing to listen to

29:07

an idea. If you got a better

29:09

idea than his, then don't get me

29:11

wrong. At first, I mean, Vince doesn't care

29:13

whose idea it is. And he's okay with

29:15

taking credit for your ideas well. But at

29:17

the end of the day, Vince is a

29:20

businessman. I kind of say that as a

29:22

rib. But... with the Bray White thing,

29:24

you know, he's a third generation wrestler,

29:26

Black Jack Mulligan is his grandfather, Micra

29:28

Tunda, IRS, you remember him, was his

29:31

father, Barry Windham and Kindle Windham are

29:33

his, what, uncles, I guess, or cousins,

29:35

whatever it is, and so he's third

29:37

generation guy, you know, he's a pretty

29:40

big dude, he was, uh, Jesus, I

29:42

think, was an all-American wrestler, and

29:44

a all-American wrestler, or

29:47

state-level wrestler, high school and college

29:49

won a championship and so when he

29:51

comes out you know Bray has that

29:53

wrestlers type body he's not all musseled

29:56

up looks like a bodybuilder so that

29:58

name Husky Harris kind of lend itself

30:00

to his build. And if, like I

30:02

was watching, it was interesting and talking

30:04

to him, when I watched some of

30:07

the old Husky Harris videos or vignettes

30:09

or interviews, you could see that little

30:11

bit of Bray White and him back

30:13

then, just the way the guy talked,

30:15

but he hadn't developed into that character

30:17

yet. So I think, you know, once

30:19

he kind of crapped out with Husky

30:22

Harris, he approached the office. And you

30:24

know I think it was like you

30:26

said he talked with Dan Spivey with

30:28

the Wayland Mercy gimmick which was a

30:30

hell of a gimmick way back in

30:32

the day and he saw the movies

30:34

that he watched Cape Fear and I

30:36

believe that was his pitch to them.

30:39

Interesting. I know when when you got

30:41

hurt when you're wrestling Owen and you

30:43

dropped you on your head obviously you

30:45

had more more of the match lined

30:47

out than what you what you got

30:49

to work you got to work you

30:51

ever wrestled somebody and them. get injured

30:53

during the course of the match and

30:56

you know how do you handle that

30:58

I mean I know you're you know

31:00

he's gonna let you know you know

31:02

I just pulled something or I can't

31:04

continue how do you wrap that up

31:06

if it's you know two minutes into

31:08

the thing. Dude, that's a total improvise,

31:11

overcome and adapt. It's a great question,

31:13

but you're flying by the seat of

31:15

your pants and obviously you know what

31:17

kind of time you got when you

31:19

go out there. Whether you work in

31:21

a house show match or television match

31:23

or paper view, now I think under

31:25

most circumstances, had I got dropped on

31:28

my head at a house show? I

31:30

don't think I would have tried to

31:32

finish that match. I'd have just laid

31:34

there. But you know, when I was

31:36

working with Owen, I got dropped on

31:38

my head, there was a kiss, my

31:40

ass stipulation that the loser was going

31:42

to have to kiss the other guy's

31:45

ass. Hey man, I was stone cold

31:47

Steve Austin, I was supposed to go

31:49

over that night with a stone cold

31:51

stutter. But, you know, I got dropped

31:53

on my head, I was paralyzed, I

31:55

was a transient quadriplegic for about a

31:57

little about a minute and scared to

31:59

scared to hell out of me, scared

32:02

to hell out of me, scared to

32:04

hell out of me, scared to hell

32:06

out of me, scared the hell out

32:08

of me, scared to hell out of

32:10

me, scared to hell out of me,

32:12

and scared to hell out of me,

32:14

and scared the hell out of me,

32:17

figuring, you know, man, I wouldn't even

32:19

think I'm stone ghost Steve Austin. It's

32:21

been my... how I operate as a

32:23

competitor, I must finish the job at

32:25

hand. So that's when I was able

32:27

to lay there and I told him,

32:29

don't touch me because I can't move.

32:31

And that's when I could finally start

32:34

moving my arms and legs. And I

32:36

told Earl Hibner, I said, tell him,

32:38

roll up for the win. It's when

32:40

I told Earl Hibner, I said, tell

32:42

him, roll up for the win. It

32:44

was a tag. I said, tell him,

32:46

roll up for the roll up. I'm

32:48

Chris Jericho. I can't remember. Someone just

32:51

sent this into my question to Steve

32:53

Austin show.com the other day. But AAA

32:55

blows his quad in the match and

32:57

was able to, you know, have the

32:59

strength determination and guts to somehow finish

33:01

the match. And dude, I mean, he

33:03

tore his quad off his knee, off

33:05

his knee, whatever the scientific description of

33:08

the injury was, he was screwed because

33:10

they had to go in there and

33:12

tie that tendon back down to his

33:14

knee. But you just do what you

33:16

got to do to make chicken salad

33:18

out of whatever has been dumped in

33:20

your lap. And that's just improvisational skills

33:23

and common sense. And sometimes, you know,

33:25

it's just to flat out ring the

33:27

bell. We've got to have medical personnel

33:29

out here. Check us out. We're at

33:31

the royal rumble. I think it was

33:33

the second rumble I was ever in.

33:35

My battle royal. and I was supposed

33:37

to be the fourth guy out. It

33:40

might have been my first as a

33:42

matter of fact. So your first year

33:44

in the company and you're gonna be

33:46

the fourth to last guy left in

33:48

the ring, that's a pretty good rub.

33:50

Yeah. You've weathered the storm from 30

33:52

WWF superstars and now you're number four

33:54

and going down to three to one

33:57

and you know, whoever wins that gets

33:59

the big push. So anyway. I was

34:01

doing a spot with, I believe it

34:03

was 5-2, I can't remember, one of

34:05

the Samoans, and man he had a

34:07

lot of baby oil on, and all

34:09

the guys were oiled up, and so

34:12

the ropes... were very slippery. So I

34:14

was going to do a deal where

34:16

he does something to me and I

34:18

was going to take a bump over

34:20

the top, hang on the top rope,

34:22

come back in the bottom. Well, zip,

34:24

zip, boom, lost my grip, fall out

34:26

on my keaster, on the apron, down

34:29

by the guardrail, and I'm thinking, oh

34:31

man. I'm the new guy in the

34:33

company. They're trying to give me a

34:35

little bit of a, you know, push

34:37

here by letting me be the fourth

34:39

last guy in the damn square circle

34:41

with three other bad-ass superstars and I

34:43

blow it. Really? So I'm sitting there

34:46

out on my ass and Sean, I

34:48

believe Sean was going over in that

34:50

Royal Rumble or he was an integral

34:52

part of the finish. So... You know,

34:54

what I've got to do is this

34:56

is live. This is at the San

34:58

Diego sports arena. There's 20,000 people there.

35:00

It's on paper view. I got to

35:03

let him know that dude, everything that,

35:05

you know, I had to do to,

35:07

you know, help you with the finish

35:09

of the match. I'm gone. You're on

35:11

your own now, pal. So anyway, As

35:13

I'm on the floor, I get up

35:15

and I make eye contact with Sean

35:18

and I just kind of held up

35:20

my hands, I mean, in a cave

35:22

style, not just saying, hey, I got

35:24

dumped on my ass, here's a signal,

35:26

you must do something and overcome this

35:28

tragedy. I just give him the Iggy,

35:30

you know, with the visual cue, like,

35:32

dude, I'm out, I screwed up. And

35:35

so I don't know how Sean fixed

35:37

that, I'll even remember how Sean fixed

35:39

that, I'll even remember the fly. And

35:41

that's when one guy will step up

35:43

and he'll be that ring general and

35:45

come up with a general plan That's

35:47

copacetic right if someone's got a better

35:49

idea you call it and get it

35:52

done on in the process right? That's

35:54

interesting You think the old-school wrestlers work

35:56

more snug than today's wrestlers? I wouldn't

35:58

say more snug. I would say a

36:00

frog's hair more believable There's a lot

36:02

of guys that are snug right now

36:04

in the business. But there's a lot

36:06

of sloppy work right now in the

36:09

business. And I'm not saying that as

36:11

a knock on the talent. I'm just

36:13

saying because it's a very green crew.

36:15

Man, you got to work your ass

36:17

off for a long time. Like hell,

36:19

I was watching the Russellman and 13

36:21

match with myself and Brett. And at

36:24

that stage in my career, I think

36:26

I've been working eight years. And that

36:28

night, my working punch, I really thought

36:30

it was more like a push punch

36:32

punch punch. critical of myself or my

36:34

work, I was not and I had

36:36

a good working punch, but it wasn't

36:38

on that night. So I think the

36:41

older guys who had been seasoned and

36:43

there were more veterans on a roster,

36:45

I think the work was a little

36:47

bit more, I would say, credible, not

36:49

necessarily more snug, but you take a

36:51

guy like Ricky Morton. everything they did

36:53

look like a million bucks and it

36:55

felt you know I'm touching Ted's arm

36:58

I mean that's the pressure you felt

37:00

but it looked it looked professional yeah

37:02

it looked tight there was no gaps

37:04

you grab a rear chin lock on

37:06

a guy you know there's no gaps

37:08

in there's snugged up That's the kind

37:10

of things you would see on a

37:13

veteran crew. And so anyway to answer

37:15

your question, again that's not throwing current

37:17

talent under the bus. Just talking when

37:19

you talk with a veteran crew and

37:21

a green crew, there's a big difference

37:23

in the kind of work you're going

37:25

to get out. And that comes from

37:27

a psychological standpoint and the actual mechanical

37:30

work itself. Now you guys, the wrestlers

37:32

in the locker room, I mean you're

37:34

talking to, you know, Brett Harder Sean

37:36

Michael's not, not those guys in particular,

37:38

but younger wrestlers, but younger wrestlers, You

37:40

know, give me a little insight, a

37:42

little critique, you know, their performance. Did,

37:44

you know, the, God, the Stooges? You

37:47

know, did those guys ever come to

37:49

you or the other wrestlers and say,

37:51

hey, you know what? This is what

37:53

we think you need to polish up

37:55

a little bit? Yeah, man. You're talking

37:57

about the Stooges. You don't mean like,

37:59

like, Brisco, Patterson, those guys. Oh yeah,

38:01

I want to make, because those guys

38:04

are highly respected by everybody in the

38:06

locker room. And man, when I first

38:08

came in, you know, I came in

38:10

as a ringmaster, had a very physical,

38:12

aggressive style, but you know, they were

38:14

pushing everybody else that they had brought

38:16

in before me. They're pushing, you know,

38:19

Mike, they're pushing Mark Henry, they're pushing

38:21

Vader at the time, Johnny Be Bad,

38:23

who was Mark Marrow, and I was

38:25

kind of, you know, like, like, like,

38:27

like, plan nine from outer, like, like,

38:29

nine from outer space, But once the

38:31

bell rang and I had a very

38:33

physical style, those guys were cut. They

38:36

would come up to me and I'll

38:38

never forget this. In George Animal Steel,

38:40

Blackjack Lands, Jerry Briscoe, Patterson, they said,

38:42

hey kid. He goes, you keep doing

38:44

what you're doing. He goes, and this

38:46

before I turned in stone cold. But

38:48

they could see the future or see

38:50

that the work style was the bottom

38:53

line with me. And they would tell

38:55

me. He goes, if you keep doing

38:57

what you're going, you're doing, you'll get

38:59

over. It's going to take you longer

39:01

to get over because you're not a

39:03

gimmick like these other guys are. With

39:05

all due respect, you know, they were

39:07

more character gimmick oriented than I was

39:10

as a ringmaster. I was still that

39:12

mechanic. But they told me, you know,

39:14

if you keep doing what you're doing,

39:16

you'll get over. And it ended up

39:18

being very true. And any time any

39:20

of those guys would pull you aside

39:22

and get in your ear. Dude, that's

39:25

just nothing but respect for those guys

39:27

that would, you know, give you some

39:29

4011. It's like I like to try

39:31

to help people out these days, too.

39:33

And going back to my USWA days,

39:35

when I was breaking in in Dallas,

39:37

Texas, I would ride down the road

39:39

with Scandar Act, born, Bronco, Lee, Lubitch.

39:42

And, you know, Scandar was a manager

39:44

at the time, who had wrestled. Bronco

39:46

was a referee at the time, but

39:48

had wrestled for a referee at the

39:50

time, but had wrestled for a referee

39:52

at the time, but had wrestled for

39:54

a referee at the time, that Bronco

39:56

had and we arrived to some of

39:59

the towns in Louisiana because you know

40:01

I didn't have nobody to hang out

40:03

with. I wasn't really one of the

40:05

boys yet. It was just kind of

40:07

breaking in and listen to those guys

40:09

tell me stories and talk about the

40:11

psychology of the business. And, you know,

40:13

all those guys like, you know, Jerry

40:16

Briscoe, I mean, all the advice that

40:18

those guys gave to me and all

40:20

the other guys, it's very much appreciated

40:22

it. And you damn sure learn, Pat

40:24

Patterson, a genius that finishes. And so,

40:26

yeah, it's those discussions with those vets.

40:28

And those guys like Arne Anderson, the

40:31

guys that are, that are agents these

40:33

days, they're helping these guys that know

40:35

the... and outs of being a hill,

40:37

a baby face, the mechanics, the psychology,

40:39

and the crowd manipulation skills. So, yeah,

40:41

those guys are, are, are, are worth

40:43

their weight in gold in my opinion.

40:45

And, you know, speaking of guys that

40:48

are worth their weight in gold, Jim

40:50

Ross. I mean, I talked to Jim,

40:52

you know, you've been outside several times

40:54

when I've talked to him, been down

40:56

here at the ranch. But there's a

40:58

guy who is nothing but chock full.

41:00

of the whole lifetime experience in the

41:02

business and can look at things so

41:05

objectively and can be the best devil's

41:07

advocate on any kind of business decision,

41:09

booking decision that really is walking around

41:11

on planet Earth right now. I don't

41:13

consider really with regards to finishes Pat

41:15

Patterson is great but just general day-to-day

41:17

working knowledge of what and how and

41:20

why this should be done or that

41:22

should be done. He's the guy. Did

41:24

who do you think is better ring

41:26

announcer? Jesse and guerrilla monsoon, which I'd

41:28

love those guys or Vince. Oh, what

41:30

am I calling the calling the shots?

41:32

Oh, dude. You know, you're going back

41:34

into the kind of old hey day

41:37

type stuff. Those guys were the right

41:39

time for the right. The right voices

41:41

there at the right time. I loved.

41:43

Jesse and Gorilla. Oh, Gorilla. And then

41:45

you know, and a lot of people

41:47

didn't thought, thought, Gorilla was an average

41:49

announcer. I loved Gorilla. And the chemistry,

41:51

those two guys had together. And all

41:54

of a sudden you bring Bobby the

41:56

brain heaned into the mix and then

41:58

you had, you know, because back in

42:00

a day when Vince started announcing, I

42:02

think it was 71, Vince Senior was

42:04

having a hard time with his commentary

42:06

guy as an ounce guy. So Vince

42:08

always wanted in the business, but Vince's

42:11

dad didn't want him in the business.

42:13

And when the guy, they announced one

42:15

or two much money, Vince Senior said,

42:17

hey, I'll see you down the road.

42:19

and oh by the way Vince we

42:21

need you to start doing the announcing

42:23

so Vince was basically a white meat

42:26

you know baby face announcer you know

42:28

and you know very proper and respectful

42:30

and told it like it was and

42:32

then he kind of started spinning it

42:34

up and he was very uh... excitable

42:36

and so i some things he did

42:38

which were way over the top were

42:40

kind of like maybe not so much

42:43

but because he knew that the big

42:45

picture and he was very, you know,

42:47

sometimes the displays of athletic system and

42:49

those silly things that he said weren't

42:51

so great, but I really enjoyed Vince's

42:53

own commentary because I appreciated his enthusiasm

42:55

for the product. So I was a

42:57

big fan of guerrilla monsoon and, you

43:00

know, Jesse, those guys, you know, they

43:02

had me cracking up. Tag teams. We've

43:04

spoken about this, you know, the absence

43:06

of them. But I know when you

43:08

and Brian were a tag team. There

43:10

was a lot of them back in

43:12

the day. You can make more money

43:14

as a singles wrestler than a than

43:17

a tag team Yes, because you know

43:19

when it all comes down to it

43:21

if you're working in that main event

43:23

spot You got to split that man,

43:25

you know, they're not you know, like

43:27

Jim Ross just did a podcast about

43:29

it how wrestling payoffs are made and

43:32

You know, I think you ruffled some

43:34

feathers, but at the end of the

43:36

day I mean, you know that formula

43:38

has got to have been around for

43:40

a long as time so Let's take

43:42

let's just let's look at this way

43:44

because if you want to listen to

43:46

that you can go find the Jim

43:49

Ross podcast It was a recent one

43:51

and listen to him break it down

43:53

in a scientific fashion But say you've

43:55

got 10 matches on the card and

43:57

you have you know your house your

43:59

total money, you've got your gross

44:01

and then after paying all your bills

44:03

you got your net, you pay your

44:06

talent. Okay, so here's your main event

44:08

money and instead of you and me

44:10

are working on top. So we've got

44:12

X amount of dollars to split between

44:14

the two of us. You and me

44:16

as the tag team taking on

44:18

the road warriors, we've got four

44:21

guys splitting main event money.

44:23

So you're gonna make less. Now is

44:25

it exactly, is it exactly half as

44:27

much? No, because they could toss a

44:30

little bit more in there. There's a

44:32

formula, but there's also taking care of

44:34

the guys as well. But theoretically, in

44:36

theory, and really, yeah, you're gonna make

44:39

less money as a tag match. You're

44:41

probably gonna make less per person than

44:43

you could as a single if you

44:46

were a highly successful single. You know,

44:48

and there's, there's been great tag teams

44:50

like, let's take the Road Warriors. Those

44:53

guys separately. you know maybe they

44:55

wouldn't in theory got over like they

44:57

did as individuals the way they did

44:59

as a team right so that would

45:01

say hey we're gonna make more as

45:03

a tag team than we are as

45:05

a single because we're better as

45:07

a tag team from it yeah yeah

45:09

from from the business standpoint

45:11

does a tag team you know bringing us

45:14

as much revenue as as a

45:16

singles match I mean would they ever

45:18

have a wrestling event where the where

45:20

the last match the main Oh yeah, it

45:22

was a tag. Oh yeah, man, all the

45:24

time. I mean, you go back to the

45:26

Midnight Express days, Rock and Roll Express days,

45:28

some of the greatest tag teams of all

45:30

time, and the legendary feuds they had in

45:32

there, and there was a proof in the

45:34

pudding. I mean, a lot of times they

45:36

put Midnight in Rock and Roll, I think,

45:38

on the B squad, and they were out

45:40

drawing a squad, which was flare dusty, and

45:42

the proof was in the pudding, so. Make no

45:44

mistake about it you get two bad ass

45:47

tag teams with you know four bad ass

45:49

stars You can damn sure out draw two

45:51

singles guys any day of the week But

45:53

anyway, we're gonna wrap this part of the

45:55

conversation up. It's time to get to my

45:58

conversation with WWU Superstar Bray wide appreciate Ted

46:00

Fowler asking me some questions and

46:02

helping the brother out on the

46:04

podcast. You can check him out

46:06

on Twitter at Ted Fowler 361.

46:08

We'll catch it down the road.

46:10

You're listening to another classic episode

46:12

of the Steve Austin show only

46:14

on podcast one. A true crime

46:16

podcast. It got me upset because

46:18

this is someone's kid and someone

46:21

knows she's got. That takes a

46:23

different approach. It was shocking for

46:25

something like this to happen in

46:27

our little town. Focusing on the

46:29

communities affected by life-shattering crimes. It

46:31

made news throughout the entire region

46:33

that these two people had been

46:35

shot while they slept in such

46:37

a safe community. To give a

46:39

new perspective on the devastation crimes

46:41

can cause. It was shocking for

46:43

something like this to happen in

46:45

our little town. Featuring cases from

46:47

quiet towns to bustling cities and

46:50

interviewing the people closest to the

46:52

case. My first thought was that

46:54

it's an unusual location for us

46:56

to have a homicide. Listen to

46:58

the true crime podcast, City Confidential,

47:00

and step beyond the yellow tape

47:02

to learn just how far a

47:04

crime can reach. There are certain

47:06

cases in the history of Boston

47:08

that I think sort of defined

47:10

the city. I think this is

47:12

one of all. New episodes of

47:14

the City Confidential Podcast are available

47:16

every Thursday. Available wherever you get

47:19

your podcasts. Steve Austin. Unleached. Here

47:21

I am sitting on my ass

47:23

to the Broken School Ranch. All

47:25

I did was hit the stop

47:27

button and then hit the record

47:29

button because I got some slow

47:31

download speed to divide these two

47:33

shows up. All right, Bray, how

47:35

you doing? You feeling good? I'm

47:37

so great, man. Man, when I

47:39

look at some of my classic,

47:41

some of my favorite matches of

47:43

all time, there's been some hellacious

47:45

matches against, you know, technical wrestlers.

47:48

Looking back, some of the things

47:50

that you witnessed, what were some

47:52

of the, what would be some

47:54

of the favorite matches of Bray

47:56

White? You were not a part

47:58

of it. Oh, one match that

48:00

I've taken a lot from in

48:02

these past few years is Sean

48:04

Michael's and Mankind in your house.

48:06

Right. Yeah, just the violence and

48:08

the peace of that match in

48:10

particular. Also, I mean, it was

48:12

incredible in some of the new

48:14

things that Nick could do attacked

48:17

with the unbelievable in ringability of

48:19

Sean Michael's. I have to pick

48:21

that as possibly one of my

48:23

favorite match of all time. But

48:25

God, there's so many that I've

48:27

taken from me. So many that

48:29

I've watched and admired. I always

48:31

loved any combination of Vader and

48:33

Stan Hansen. Yep. Or Vader and

48:35

Sting is actually very fun to

48:37

watch as well. Yeah. I just

48:39

like kind of those brutal forces.

48:41

where my eye I can tell

48:43

that they're out there and they're

48:46

just fighting each other you know

48:48

and that's really exciting to me

48:50

as a viewer and as a

48:52

fan of this business to watch

48:54

and be able to try to

48:56

pick a part you know what

48:58

how exactly they put this thing

49:00

together what was going on in

49:02

their mind but I like I

49:04

like any of those type of

49:06

era matches you know real violent

49:08

and brutal ones there so many

49:10

that I can city I name

49:13

them all day but it was

49:15

just some of the few that

49:17

stuck out to me. When I

49:19

see the White family as a

49:21

whole unit and you look at

49:23

Luke Harper, he reminds me from

49:25

a visual standpoint so much of

49:27

Bruiser Brody. Were you a fan

49:29

of Brody's work? Oh of course.

49:31

I was actually watching him and

49:33

Terry Funk there a night. They're

49:35

still out there and they're just

49:37

being hell out each other. I

49:39

like broody. its pace was and

49:42

you were talking earlier about the

49:44

undertaker, not the undertaker. Just you

49:46

know five around the ring and

49:48

you know news gas mask oxygen

49:50

mask keep up with him. That's

49:52

what it looked like we broke

49:54

too right? Just standing tall and

49:56

barking in your face and you

49:58

had it you had to really

50:00

just teach him down It looked

50:02

like to keep him down you

50:04

know be down and get him

50:06

to cooperate Oh, yeah, if you

50:08

wasn't in shape he would eat

50:11

your lunch up. Oh, yeah. Oh,

50:13

yeah. He was a buddy man.

50:15

Hey, you know last week we

50:17

were talking about your brother Bo

50:19

getting into the FCW school before

50:21

you and lining the fire under

50:23

your ass. How much sooner did

50:25

he get into the school before

50:27

you? I think he was there

50:29

maybe like six months before me.

50:31

So what was it? Was you

50:33

like a damn egg and a

50:35

frying pan at that point saying,

50:37

hey man, I'm letting this stuff

50:40

pass me by, I better jump

50:42

on to get in this stuff.

50:44

Yeah, I couldn't hold it any

50:46

longer. I had to get into

50:48

it. I mean... It's an addiction

50:50

too, once you do cross grab

50:52

barrier, you know, and even for

50:54

me, before I couldn't stand, you

50:56

know, being in my position anymore.

50:58

You know, it used to be

51:00

everything I love. I could not

51:02

stand to not be there. I

51:04

would have given everything to jump

51:06

in at first. But as much

51:09

as you enjoyed playing football and

51:11

you were an All-American, did you

51:13

see the riding on the wall

51:15

of, hey man, you know, I'm

51:17

good here, but playing in the

51:19

pros, maybe it's not going to

51:21

happen. Were there dreams or aspirations

51:23

of playing pro football or you're

51:25

like, you know, going back to

51:27

your roots, your calling card, the

51:29

family business of pro wrestling. Yeah,

51:31

yeah, I mean, as you look

51:33

at it, I was a center

51:35

and I was about six to,

51:38

I had a good 40 time,

51:40

I had real good strength, I

51:42

had real good strength. But in

51:44

the NFL everyone's six five. Yep,

51:46

and you know six six and

51:48

and I couldn't pursue it and

51:50

It probably wouldn't have worked out

51:52

the way I wanted it to,

51:54

but that was not the driving

51:56

factor in why I came here.

51:58

It was more of this is

52:00

what I really wanted to do,

52:02

and I had a great time

52:04

while I was doing that, and

52:07

it moved in me and changed

52:09

me from place to place. I

52:11

went to play in football. It

52:13

really, looking back at it now,

52:15

it really helped me, you know,

52:17

in this department. And also my

52:19

amateur wrestling in high school and

52:21

how long I did that. And

52:23

I actually almost pursued that in

52:25

college as well. Now you were

52:27

a state champion. You were a

52:29

state champion in wrestling in high

52:31

school. Have you ever thought to

52:33

implement any amateur wrestling into the

52:36

Bray White character? It doesn't sound

52:38

like it fit, but that's where

52:40

you come from. Have you used

52:42

any of that background? Well, I

52:44

think to explain this in an

52:46

irrational way, I was very unorthodox.

52:48

My body just moved in a

52:50

strange way and I attacked in

52:52

a different way. I was not

52:54

your smooth, I'm going to shoot

52:56

on your leg and take you

52:58

down and score points. I was

53:00

a... Yeah, I tell him I'm

53:02

going to move up to your

53:05

ass. There's a wild man. That's

53:07

like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm going

53:09

to tell my job. And I

53:11

can move. I was, especially back

53:13

then when I was lighter. I

53:15

was very fast for heavy weight.

53:17

And I was just really mean.

53:19

Right. I have always had that

53:21

wild side to me, especially if

53:23

something didn't go my way. It

53:25

was more of a close to

53:27

a fierce flight than I was

53:29

wrestling that from that point with

53:31

me. which is why I think

53:34

I won my state time because

53:36

I just I was just mean.

53:38

Amen but I've always said you

53:40

know as a hill I do

53:42

believe you have to have a

53:44

mean streak. As a baby face

53:46

you must have fire. So, I

53:48

mean, if you're not willing to

53:50

go out there and just punish

53:52

the hell out of the person

53:54

that you're working with, I mean,

53:56

because there's just, there's one way

53:58

to get heat. And you watch

54:00

some of the classic guys that

54:03

I used to really like, guys

54:05

who weren't great athletes, but when

54:07

they flipped the switch, they got

54:09

mean. And Michael P.S. Hayes is

54:11

one of those guys. He was

54:13

just a cocky, arrogant, arrogant, and

54:15

he was a piece of trash

54:17

and he would back off and

54:19

sometimes beg off, but when it

54:21

came time to switch the, you

54:23

know, flip the switch and get

54:25

heat, he turned into a different

54:27

person. Adrian and Donnas turned into

54:30

a different person. Rick Flair even

54:32

turned into a different person. He

54:34

was mean. And that's what I

54:36

think is a big key to

54:38

making a successful hill. And then

54:40

on the other side of that,

54:42

as a baby face, I mean,

54:44

the guy has to have fire.

54:46

There has to be some spark.

54:48

And sometimes I think you can

54:50

work with a person long enough

54:52

that they understand this, but for

54:54

the most part, you're either born

54:56

with that competitive spark or that

54:59

mean streak, and some people will

55:01

never get it, and that's why

55:03

they never ascend to a higher

55:05

level, given the facts that everything

55:07

they do is very good. I

55:09

agree with that 100%, man. You

55:11

know, there's a level of tenacity,

55:13

and you see it in every

55:15

sport in the world. You either

55:17

have it or you don't. And

55:19

it's a switch and not everyone

55:21

possesses it, which is why I

55:23

think it makes people special that

55:25

do have it. And I think

55:28

my my fuse comes from my

55:30

father. It's the same type of

55:32

fuse. It's okay, okay, okay, not

55:34

anymore. Right. And I mean, it's

55:36

easy to pretend in wrestling because...

55:38

It's easier to get mad and

55:40

frustrated out there than if you

55:42

know how to channel it. Now,

55:44

if you give it to right

55:46

out with it and then be

55:48

a part of your match, you

55:50

know, you're the best person. swim

55:52

together wonderfully together. Hey man, it's

55:54

always, it's interesting to me to

55:57

sit here and think, I mean,

55:59

you're a third generation guy. I

56:01

mean, so like if you're just

56:03

sitting around at the dinner table,

56:05

or for a family gathering, I

56:07

mean, would it be just like

56:09

you and your father, Micratundo, IRS?

56:11

I mean, does y'all ever just

56:13

sit there and just talk psychology

56:15

or talk about the business? Or

56:17

did y'all, did y'all leave that

56:19

away from conversation? right now your

56:21

father who'd been around for a

56:23

long time great psychology great worker

56:26

very solid in the ring did

56:28

y'all ever have those conversations where

56:30

he'd say hey man you might

56:32

want to slow this down you

56:34

might want to grab a hold

56:36

here or more transition make your

56:38

work a spot here did you

56:40

borrow a psychology from your father

56:42

no of course I mean we've

56:44

had those chops just like you're

56:46

saying but most of my life

56:48

we did kind of keep it

56:50

away Right, I prefer that to,

56:52

usually when I'm home, it's kind

56:55

of bad as who I am

56:57

there and this is who I

56:59

am here. But I've learned from

57:01

him a lot of things, you

57:03

know, and especially not just in-range

57:05

stuff, but you know, how to

57:07

be a man and survive here

57:09

and how to be a man

57:11

and survive with your home life.

57:13

You know, he's talking a lot

57:15

of that. It's not just simply,

57:17

hey, you teach me how you

57:19

teach me how to... Just matter,

57:21

during the years when I get,

57:24

when the heat starts, it's, it's,

57:26

you know, how to be a

57:28

real human being, it's more than

57:30

what I get from it. Hey

57:32

man, you grew up in a

57:34

family wrestling. Your dad was always

57:36

gone. And now you're always gone.

57:38

How do you like living life

57:40

on the road? Because man, living

57:42

life on the road for me

57:44

was heaven. And I dug it.

57:46

Sometimes I did out on a

57:48

road. It might be for a

57:50

couple of weeks, three weeks sometimes,

57:53

and I was dying to get

57:55

home. speaking for myself, sometimes when

57:57

I got home, I was like,

57:59

you know, I was ready to

58:01

get home, but when I got

58:03

home, I was ready to get

58:05

back out on the road. How

58:07

has the WW schedule been on

58:09

you? Has a grind okay to

58:11

deal with? Is it pretty much

58:13

four to five days a week

58:15

in the ring? I mean, back

58:17

in the day, we were working

58:19

double shots on Saturdays and Sundays,

58:22

which totally sucked ass. I don't

58:24

recommend double shots for nobody. But

58:26

uh, and then once I got

58:28

enough stroke, home I didn't play

58:30

that. So, how's life on the

58:32

road for you? Do you dig

58:34

me in on the road? When

58:36

you get a chance to call

58:38

a few shots, you got to

58:40

call a few shots. How you

58:42

like living on the road, Bre?

58:44

You know, I look at it

58:46

like this. I'm going to live

58:48

as hard and as fast as

58:51

I possibly can while I can

58:53

still do this. Like I said,

58:55

it's the traveling and the waiting

58:57

and the pressuresures That's what they

58:59

paying me for and the end-line

59:01

stuff, you know, that's what I

59:03

do for fun. But I look

59:05

at it as, you know, go

59:07

hard now and then you'll get

59:09

to enjoy the fruits of the

59:11

labor later in your life. And

59:13

that's what I want to be,

59:15

you know, I want to provide

59:17

the best I can for as

59:20

long as I can, so that

59:22

when I'm done, I'm done. And

59:24

I'm going to stay around. where

59:26

I live and I'll be able

59:28

to enjoy all the hard work

59:30

I put in my entire life,

59:32

you know. You gotta make a

59:34

water sunshine and that sounds like

59:36

what you're doing. Like you said,

59:38

and at 27, you gotta get

59:40

it while it's good and right

59:42

now it is. Later on down

59:44

the road in 10 to 15

59:47

years, you can segue into that.

59:49

lucrative radio career. Yeah. We'll do

59:51

the we'll do the Brian Steve

59:53

show. We'll be a part. We'll

59:55

talk about everything but wrestling. Hey

59:57

man, talk to me about you,

59:59

about your brother, Bo, because I

1:00:01

know y'all don't talk about the

1:00:03

fact that you guys are related

1:00:05

on the W-W-E, on Monday Night

1:00:07

Raw, or smack down anything like

1:00:09

that. But how big of a

1:00:11

support system have you been for

1:00:13

him and him for you? Because

1:00:16

I'm a Bo leaver. I like

1:00:18

what your brother's doing. He's a

1:00:20

breath of fresh air, he's doing

1:00:22

things that are a little bit

1:00:24

different. At first when he came

1:00:26

out, you know, he's a good

1:00:28

looking kid, he had that cheesy

1:00:30

smile, and I said, man, what is

1:00:32

this? And then I kept watching him

1:00:34

do those promos and do his victory

1:00:36

lap around the ring. So I dig

1:00:38

what your brother's doing. I'm proud of

1:00:40

you or him and vice versa. Kind

1:00:42

of cool, because we got to

1:00:44

getting this together together and it,

1:00:46

you know. I brought up my

1:00:49

dad and Barry. You know, they

1:00:51

were always a team together and

1:00:53

best friends and, you know, me

1:00:55

and my brother are pretty close.

1:00:57

We saw ourselves in the business

1:00:59

a lot differently. He was always

1:01:01

naturally gifted in me. You know,

1:01:03

I was not as gifted as him.

1:01:05

He, uh, when he was in

1:01:07

the name, he reminds everyone that

1:01:09

watched him, Barry, and unfortunately, at

1:01:11

time in the WWW, he hasn't

1:01:14

really gotten a chance to show.

1:01:16

exactly everything that he can do

1:01:18

because he can do a lot.

1:01:20

Right. He will get that chance

1:01:22

and then he's a, he's only

1:01:24

24, you know, and what are

1:01:26

lifeers, man? We're not, we're not

1:01:28

trying to come to the WEE

1:01:30

to go and become movie stars.

1:01:32

This is what we do and

1:01:34

this is what we want to do.

1:01:37

Because I wasn't doing really, it's

1:01:39

just horrible, but that's, you know,

1:01:41

I mean, you know, you know,

1:01:43

there. He is going to be... a

1:01:45

bit start here too. And we've known

1:01:47

that since we're the little kids,

1:01:50

you know, giving off power bombs

1:01:52

on the trampling and doing it.

1:01:54

You know, that's just, it's just,

1:01:56

it's just, it's just, it's just

1:01:58

who we are. and the deal with

1:02:01

always be. Hey, how did the, how did the,

1:02:03

how did Spider-Wall come about? Oh, that's interesting. Running

1:02:05

one day, I was working with Terry Taylor and,

1:02:07

uh, to Mercury down in, uh, for, you know,

1:02:09

both of them have been, uh, extremely influential as

1:02:11

far as a little kid did that I've done.

1:02:13

Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, a little

1:02:15

kid that I've done, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:17

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:19

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:21

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:23

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:25

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:27

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:02:29

uh, uh, I threw someone

1:02:31

in for a hard buckle and

1:02:34

they moved and I caught myself

1:02:36

and I was just bending backwards.

1:02:38

Sometimes I just I don't know

1:02:40

why I never would explain what

1:02:43

was going through my mind at

1:02:45

that point in time. I just

1:02:47

hung upside down by the ropes

1:02:49

and everyone around me went whoa

1:02:52

whoa. You know what I mean?

1:02:54

It was like one of those

1:02:56

things. I wasn't trying to experiment

1:02:59

with it. I just did it.

1:03:01

And it evolved later on down

1:03:03

the line. I was going to

1:03:05

a live event somewhere. And I

1:03:08

was just hanging there and I

1:03:10

go, man, I wonder if I

1:03:12

could catch myself. Just drop. And

1:03:14

I caught myself with my arms.

1:03:17

And I just started walking and

1:03:19

just listening to the crowd. They're

1:03:21

freaking out over it. And I

1:03:23

was baffling to me and when

1:03:26

I came back, you know, you

1:03:28

know, something was good when all

1:03:30

the boys are going, wow, man,

1:03:32

that was crazy. That was cool.

1:03:35

You know, it was just something

1:03:37

that hit the character and happened

1:03:39

accidentally, which I know the information

1:03:41

about any woman's violent. So I

1:03:44

made that that's how he put

1:03:46

it out a lot of his

1:03:48

things, you know. Maybe she'd go

1:03:51

out there and you just accidentally

1:03:53

do something. And then you go

1:03:55

out and I work. And that's

1:03:57

the experience for this, you know,

1:04:00

that's why it takes a long.

1:04:02

to get good at this, in

1:04:04

my opinion, because after it's been

1:04:06

a minute, you have to fall

1:04:09

on the face, you have to

1:04:11

fail, you didn't ever see any

1:04:13

kind of success and understand what

1:04:15

works and what doesn't. And by

1:04:18

the walk, there's an example of

1:04:20

something that had definitely worked. Where

1:04:22

did the follow the buzzards come

1:04:24

from? I dig that. It was,

1:04:27

uh, I was on my way

1:04:29

to, uh... and I was driving

1:04:31

to the woods where I lived

1:04:33

and there was an open, it's

1:04:36

very, it's so simple. And it

1:04:38

was right after I got hurt.

1:04:40

And my brother was going to

1:04:43

be, you know, where I was

1:04:45

pregnant with his prey. And I

1:04:47

was driving to the woods where

1:04:49

I lived and there was an

1:04:52

open pasture. And I looked out

1:04:54

and there was just a jaginate

1:04:56

circle of buttocks. And

1:04:58

I was thinking to myself, I'm

1:05:00

dying under there. And then it

1:05:03

just snapped, you know, I was

1:05:05

thinking to my head, you know,

1:05:07

where's Bray? Where's Bray? You know,

1:05:09

he's where all the dead things

1:05:12

lie, you know, where all the

1:05:14

guys, where's Bray? Follow the buzzets.

1:05:16

And it just stuck. It was

1:05:18

something like, you know, it went

1:05:21

right in line with Bray. So

1:05:23

confusing, but so rational. And if

1:05:25

you follow the buzzards, and that's

1:05:27

what alleged to prey, you know,

1:05:30

what is normally on a bunch

1:05:32

of buzzards, you know, follow you

1:05:34

to death, basically. Hey man, I'm

1:05:37

on www.com. I'm looking at your

1:05:39

merchandise. How much of a hand

1:05:41

do you have in on the

1:05:43

creation of your merchandise? I'm not

1:05:46

really a huge... Hey, get me

1:05:48

a t-shirt out now type of

1:05:50

guy. That's uh, that's not really...

1:05:52

I am, but when I ask

1:05:55

me what I want, I say

1:05:57

give me death metal shirts, because

1:05:59

that's what I think is cool.

1:06:01

And I don't want, I don't

1:06:04

like shirts, they're just a product,

1:06:06

I use a progressive shirt. I

1:06:08

want my skirts to, for those

1:06:10

who know, they're going for something,

1:06:13

but everyone else who sees it,

1:06:15

it was not a cool shirt.

1:06:17

That's basically my eyes for drawn

1:06:19

that. I did the buzzard logo

1:06:22

and I and the follow the

1:06:24

buzzards man that's that's a moneymaker

1:06:26

for the next 10 to 15

1:06:28

years just off that one thing

1:06:31

but these moccas and slippers and

1:06:33

the boots and some of the

1:06:35

other stuff I don't know about

1:06:37

but I'd be marketed in the

1:06:40

living hell out of follow the

1:06:42

buzzard man but but my point

1:06:44

is passive income you got to

1:06:46

take a few bumps in the

1:06:49

ring and tell a story and

1:06:51

get some heat on somebody and

1:06:53

put your body on the line

1:06:55

to get to get to get

1:06:58

paid in the arena business. But

1:07:00

this is that income that you

1:07:02

can make and you know still

1:07:05

you got it you got to

1:07:07

remember your your commodity your product

1:07:09

and you know you got you

1:07:11

got to be look at that

1:07:14

side of it. So this is

1:07:16

again as I was talking to

1:07:18

earlier about Sizaro and offering my

1:07:20

comments I'm offering my comments here

1:07:23

which are not solicited by you

1:07:25

my observation is They need to

1:07:27

work on your merchandise a little

1:07:29

bit better. These damn little dolls

1:07:32

they got on the front of

1:07:34

their shirt are pissing me off.

1:07:36

I see the damn Wyatt family.

1:07:38

He's way more aggressive, way more

1:07:41

cool. And like you said, Gore,

1:07:43

along those lines, zombie, Danzig, that's

1:07:45

the vibe I'm feeling. And you

1:07:47

don't want to just go out

1:07:50

there and wear Bray White shirts,

1:07:52

because that wouldn't be your character

1:07:54

or your gimmick. I dig that.

1:07:56

But when people go to W.D.com

1:07:59

and go to check out your

1:08:01

merchandise, they've got to have some

1:08:03

cooler stuff. this for you. And

1:08:05

again, that was said by Steve

1:08:08

Austin, not by Bray Wyatt. Bray,

1:08:10

as we speak right now, I'm

1:08:12

chilling at the Broken Skull Ranch,

1:08:14

it's deer season. This is a

1:08:17

big part of my life. This

1:08:19

is a big part of who

1:08:21

I am. It's what I do.

1:08:23

I come out here. I have

1:08:26

2,000 and 100 acres, and I

1:08:28

have full wheelers, and I have

1:08:30

Polaris Rangers, and I like to

1:08:32

be by myself because I'm a

1:08:35

hermit. So in your free time,

1:08:37

is there any hobbies you pursue?

1:08:39

Any outdoor activities? Do you hunt?

1:08:42

Do you ride full-wheelers? What does

1:08:44

Bray White do when he's not

1:08:46

doing family-oriented stuff? Left to your

1:08:48

own devices? How do you occupy

1:08:51

your time to try to get

1:08:53

away from the business? I'm a

1:08:55

jeber anger guy. I live in

1:08:57

the woods and there is endless

1:09:00

trails out here for jeeps and

1:09:02

full-wishers and that type of the

1:09:04

thing. I like to get out

1:09:06

the woods and destroy my vehicle.

1:09:09

I like to dance with them

1:09:11

a little bit. I like to,

1:09:13

I like to water. I like

1:09:15

to be out on the water

1:09:18

and around the water. I spend

1:09:20

some time down on the keys.

1:09:22

I got some family down there.

1:09:24

And you know, I like to

1:09:27

fish. I like to fish. Yep,

1:09:29

just because I never really, I

1:09:31

just never really was around it,

1:09:33

but I think that spear fishing

1:09:36

is just such an intense way

1:09:38

to hunt because I like the

1:09:40

feeling of, of, I'm not just

1:09:42

waiting for them to walk by.

1:09:45

I'm also watching something that could

1:09:47

take me out too, you know,

1:09:49

I like to feel of being

1:09:51

in danger and hunting at the

1:09:54

same time, so it's spear fishing

1:09:56

to something I really enjoy. Well,

1:09:58

that been said, are you? Are

1:10:00

you an adrenaline junkie? Are you

1:10:03

a guy that would jump out

1:10:05

of an airplane and just go

1:10:08

parachuting because they needed a

1:10:10

thrill? My sheets stay on the

1:10:12

ground or in the water. I

1:10:14

dig that. I ain't trying to

1:10:16

jump out an airplane. That's a

1:10:18

Justin Gabriel's deal. I'll tell you

1:10:20

what if someone was trying to

1:10:22

convince me to jump out of

1:10:24

an airplane with a parachute on

1:10:26

my back they'll have a hell

1:10:28

of a shoot fight on their

1:10:31

hands I'm not saying I'm the

1:10:33

toughest guy in the world but

1:10:35

I don't think there's a human

1:10:37

being in the world who could

1:10:39

throw me out of an airplane especially

1:10:41

if you had me jump out an

1:10:44

airplane with a grown man on my

1:10:46

back like a backpack I don't I

1:10:48

don't see the fun in that as

1:10:51

I said earlier Bray homey don't play

1:10:53

that either Hey, right now as we

1:10:55

speak, a young man named Roman Reigns

1:10:58

is recovering from a heartier surgery. Roman

1:11:00

obviously come from the school there with

1:11:02

you. You guys have been feuding. Obviously

1:11:05

enemies but friends within the structure of

1:11:07

the business. as he gets well,

1:11:09

I'm wondering, is he watching what's

1:11:11

going on? Is he learning while

1:11:13

he's down with an injury? My

1:11:15

question to you is, when you

1:11:17

had your pectoral injury tear, when

1:11:20

you had your pectoral tear and

1:11:22

you were on the mend, what

1:11:24

were you doing? I mean, what changed

1:11:26

in your mind about how you

1:11:28

perceived the business? Because when I

1:11:30

was down with the next surgery,

1:11:32

it was hard for me to

1:11:34

watch, but I watched, and I

1:11:36

learned a lot. just from

1:11:38

watching and studying the

1:11:41

business. What did you

1:11:43

learn when you were

1:11:45

gone? Well, just like

1:11:47

I said earlier, uh,

1:11:49

privilege has been instrumental

1:11:52

in everything that I've

1:11:54

been able to accomplish.

1:11:56

It's his will to

1:11:58

believe in me. that has

1:12:00

helped me accomplish everything I've been

1:12:02

able to do. So when I

1:12:04

went down, when I, I mean

1:12:06

a day out of surgery, I'm

1:12:08

going to do the next piece

1:12:10

and you better not take me

1:12:12

off television. I'm more than capable

1:12:14

of being on this television show.

1:12:16

This is my show now, you

1:12:19

know, and it was, let me

1:12:21

talk. Hunter said, yeah, man, I'll

1:12:23

do exactly that. And that was

1:12:25

kind of like how they gave

1:12:27

me, gave me a Harper and

1:12:29

Rowan. you know as an instrument

1:12:31

to keep me on the show

1:12:33

so that I was still progressing

1:12:35

because I was not willing, you

1:12:37

know, when you're down there in

1:12:39

the grind and it's different in

1:12:41

Roman situation where he's already up

1:12:43

here and he's been, he's done

1:12:45

some great things already. At that

1:12:47

point in my career, I was

1:12:49

not willing to take a second

1:12:51

off. I had to keep moving

1:12:53

forward because it was an obsession

1:12:55

and hard giving you that chance

1:12:57

and believe me and he still

1:12:59

does. as I went forward with

1:13:01

that, you know, it helped me

1:13:03

progress on the microphone because I

1:13:05

have four or five promos a

1:13:07

night and I didn't have nobody

1:13:09

sitting there writing stuff for me.

1:13:11

And it was all on me

1:13:13

and it kind of helped me

1:13:16

just go, man, you know, just

1:13:18

go out there and be who

1:13:20

you are. And they'll get it,

1:13:22

because they can see what's real.

1:13:24

That's how it happened, you know,

1:13:26

so it was it was one

1:13:28

of the greatest things that happened

1:13:30

to me didn't hurt. I found

1:13:32

that when I was injured and

1:13:34

I spent time making some of

1:13:36

the arena shots that when I

1:13:38

was ringside, just being a second

1:13:40

for a guy or managing a

1:13:42

guy, whether it was mankind, you

1:13:44

know, when he was working with

1:13:46

Owen or whatever, I watched the

1:13:48

match differently as a spectator, so

1:13:50

to speak. I was sure I

1:13:52

was one of the boys, but

1:13:54

I was down with an injury.

1:13:56

That's one thing to be on

1:13:58

the apron of a match, getting

1:14:00

ready to... tag in looking at

1:14:02

the flow seeing what the guys

1:14:04

are setting the table for how

1:14:06

you will go in and keep

1:14:08

that process going but one step

1:14:10

removed just there close to the

1:14:13

ring and watching the action the

1:14:15

ring I learned a lot and

1:14:17

just it was a whole different

1:14:19

experience for me was it for

1:14:21

you that's why it's being hurt

1:14:23

and watching yes it made me

1:14:25

more like I probably came back

1:14:27

to early and I've worked through

1:14:29

it and you know I've moved

1:14:31

some strength back up but I

1:14:33

couldn't stand the deal way. It

1:14:35

was driving nuts. I see guys

1:14:37

succeeding in a spot that I

1:14:39

knew was mine or doing things

1:14:41

that I was going to do.

1:14:43

You know what I mean? Move

1:14:45

wise and things like that. I

1:14:47

even saw I'm not going to

1:14:49

mention any names of people like

1:14:51

when I went down. kind of

1:14:53

taking pieces of the very white

1:14:55

character and driving to make them

1:14:57

their own when I'm away. Right,

1:14:59

and I wasn't ready, like you

1:15:01

described it in the words of

1:15:03

Steve Austin, you know, we don't

1:15:05

play that, you know, so I

1:15:07

wasn't willing to let it go

1:15:10

that easily. I was going to

1:15:12

reinforce that I'm here and that

1:15:14

I can't let anyone take that

1:15:16

from me because it's mine. This

1:15:18

is my baby and this is

1:15:20

my obsession and, uh... I

1:15:22

learned that how to make sure

1:15:24

I could be when I want

1:15:26

to be from all that. And

1:15:29

so I'll say this to the

1:15:31

WWE superstars that are listening to

1:15:33

the show so that you don't

1:15:35

have to, but in speaking with

1:15:37

you, you have the mindset of

1:15:39

succeed at all costs. Now you

1:15:41

ain't trying to go out there

1:15:44

and step on on a buddy's

1:15:46

foot, but you're out there, you're

1:15:48

believing yourself, 100% you're committed to

1:15:50

being the absolute best that you

1:15:52

can be. and you have earned

1:15:54

a spot that you will not

1:15:57

relinquish no matter what happens. Much

1:15:59

the same mindset when I came

1:16:01

to WWF. way back in the

1:16:03

day as a ringmaster, a suck-ass

1:16:05

gimmick, but I got my foot

1:16:07

in the door and then the

1:16:10

stone cold thing happened and I

1:16:12

became truly what I was in

1:16:14

a competitive environment and I was

1:16:16

there to have the number one

1:16:18

spot and be damned who was

1:16:20

there and I had respect for

1:16:22

the guys that were ahead of

1:16:25

me but my goal was to

1:16:27

be the number one guy. Some

1:16:29

of the shows that I've been

1:16:31

to lately, it just seems like,

1:16:33

you know, the business has changed

1:16:35

a little bit. the political waters

1:16:38

that the boys must navigate are

1:16:40

a little more treacherous. There's a

1:16:42

lot more bodies to go through

1:16:44

in regards to passing an idea

1:16:46

along or getting through to someone

1:16:48

who's in charge or will listen

1:16:51

to you. But at the end

1:16:53

of the day, I guess what

1:16:55

I'm saying is to anybody in

1:16:57

the business, whether you're down in

1:16:59

TNA, WEE, whatever. Man, if you're

1:17:01

in this business, you've got to

1:17:03

have a set goal in strategy

1:17:06

to get to the top. and

1:17:08

not to walk on eggshells and

1:17:10

don't be afraid to push buttons,

1:17:12

ask questions and get your point

1:17:14

across and developing a relationship with

1:17:16

the powers of B because its

1:17:19

communication process is a key element

1:17:21

in your rise to the top

1:17:23

of the letter. You know, my

1:17:25

relationship with Vincent Mann when I

1:17:27

first came to the company was

1:17:29

zero and then it started progressing

1:17:32

and the higher up on that

1:17:34

card you get, the more... depth

1:17:36

that relationship gains and its trust

1:17:38

and its respect and it's a

1:17:40

business partnership. So you've weathered that

1:17:42

storm, you've done those things and

1:17:45

so that's my message to you

1:17:47

young cats out there and the

1:17:49

guys in the W.W.E. right now,

1:17:51

you always hear the people on

1:17:53

the internet break, all so-and-so is

1:17:55

holding these guys down. Oh man,

1:17:57

sometimes booking is what it is,

1:18:00

but nobody's in the W.W.E. or

1:18:02

any promotion for that matter seemingly

1:18:04

to hold anybody to hold anybody

1:18:06

back. They're trying to put out

1:18:08

the best superstars they can and

1:18:10

put ashes in seats at the

1:18:13

end of the day. Am I

1:18:15

correct? No, 100% correct. It's, uh...

1:18:17

It's hard to explain, but you've

1:18:19

got to keep your nose to

1:18:21

the ground at all times to

1:18:23

make it here. And that third

1:18:26

lesson, everyone learns when they first

1:18:28

come up, you know, the first

1:18:30

year that you're the shiny new

1:18:32

toy. And when there's a new

1:18:34

shiny toy, then you've got to

1:18:36

get brought to the wayside. And

1:18:38

then it's on you to find

1:18:41

a way to freshen yourself up.

1:18:43

and get yourself back to the

1:18:45

limelight and that's that's something I

1:18:47

you know it's a tough thing

1:18:49

but it's it's it's what you

1:18:51

have to go through to progress

1:18:54

here and you you want that

1:18:56

that's the competitive environment you speak

1:18:58

of because when you go down

1:19:00

and you know in the spot

1:19:02

that you want it's a you

1:19:04

have to find a way to

1:19:07

get there and I still have

1:19:09

a long way to go in

1:19:11

my career but kind of forward

1:19:13

to those types of situations because

1:19:15

Because that's, that's, I mean, that's

1:19:17

what this is. That's what it's

1:19:20

supposed to be like. You know,

1:19:22

if it was easy, everybody be

1:19:24

doing it. But it's, it's the

1:19:26

ones that have that drive and

1:19:28

that will to keep going through

1:19:30

all that crap. And when they

1:19:32

come out the other side, man,

1:19:35

it's so much sweeter. When you

1:19:37

taste it all that defeat and

1:19:39

then to come out that other

1:19:41

side, I don't feel it. A

1:19:43

break to wrap this thing up

1:19:45

for the go home, one tackle

1:19:48

drop down, give me hip toss,

1:19:50

I'll feed you in for the

1:19:52

sister Abigail. Yeah, homey calls a

1:19:54

high spot just like that. And

1:19:56

put myself in your finish. Take

1:19:58

me through sister Abigail. How'd you

1:20:01

come up with a son of

1:20:03

a gun? How'd you name it?

1:20:05

The maneuver or the actual character

1:20:07

Abigail? No, let's talk about Abigail

1:20:09

first. I don't like to give

1:20:11

away a Tommy, but... Are you

1:20:13

talking about King Dally or anything

1:20:16

else? This guy, you know, and

1:20:18

uh, and Abigail is, uh, you

1:20:20

know, inserted into a very wide

1:20:22

as the finisher, so to speak.

1:20:24

I explained it as a touch,

1:20:26

could save the world, and a

1:20:29

kiss burns it all to the

1:20:31

ground. So in itself, it's not

1:20:33

just finishing the news, it's almost

1:20:35

a place in time, a transgression,

1:20:37

if you will. Where I got

1:20:39

the actual maneuver, I have no

1:20:42

idea. I saw it in a

1:20:44

tape somewhere, probably something from Japan,

1:20:46

but the... The real driving force

1:20:48

behind it is the Abigail character,

1:20:50

you know, the kiss and the

1:20:52

dance and all that. It was

1:20:54

instrumental to the success of Bray

1:20:57

Wyatt. Now what we're using as

1:20:59

a finish when you were Husky

1:21:01

Harris, or did you have a

1:21:03

finish? When I came in as

1:21:05

a ringmaster, I was looking up

1:21:07

the lights. My finish was what

1:21:10

everybody was going to hit me

1:21:12

with. I think I started out

1:21:14

on the next TV and... I

1:21:16

did the senton one time and

1:21:18

everyone just loved it and loved

1:21:20

the way it looked so this

1:21:23

my same time came my finish

1:21:25

for a while and I roll

1:21:27

with that for quite some time

1:21:29

but then I came across that

1:21:31

move and Joey Mercury again put

1:21:33

his name out there he was

1:21:36

instrumental in helping me come up

1:21:38

with the when I danced with

1:21:40

the character and I have a

1:21:42

gales kiss and all that type

1:21:44

of thing. You know, he helped

1:21:46

me. come along with all that,

1:21:48

but at the same time was

1:21:51

my original finish. The thing about

1:21:53

that sister Abigail I like is

1:21:55

no matter how big you are,

1:21:57

whether you're a man, that dude,

1:21:59

where's that white bowl outfit, or

1:22:01

your seven foot tall big show,

1:22:04

you can give that thing to

1:22:06

anybody. And that's important when you're

1:22:08

trying to come up with a

1:22:10

finish because if you ain't, if

1:22:12

you're doing something that a top

1:22:14

guy ain't gonna take, you got

1:22:17

the wrong finish because you ain't

1:22:19

never gonna get to give it

1:22:21

to give it to give it

1:22:23

to them. And it is like

1:22:25

that's kind of a rule of

1:22:27

thumb whenever you're giving a finish

1:22:29

in developmental is hey man, can

1:22:32

you give that to big show?

1:22:34

And it answers yes, then it's

1:22:36

a go, it's not, then maybe

1:22:38

you can use it for today,

1:22:40

but we're going to try to

1:22:42

come up with something different for

1:22:45

you in the future. And in

1:22:47

honor, I've been to give it.

1:22:49

Actually, you look the big show

1:22:51

and prove everyone. Yeah, look, I

1:22:53

can't. See, he said, I don't

1:22:55

honor himself. Great. I'm gonna wrap

1:22:58

this conversation up right here man.

1:23:00

It was good talking to you.

1:23:02

I've been a big fan of

1:23:04

your progression since you got in

1:23:06

the business. Obviously, you know, I

1:23:08

stated earlier every time I cross

1:23:11

pass with you, which is very

1:23:13

seldom. I enjoy speaking with you.

1:23:15

Keep up the good work, keep

1:23:17

up the learning process and keep

1:23:19

up the hunger because as you

1:23:21

know, that's what it takes to

1:23:23

stay on top and to keep

1:23:26

furthering the progress and Tell yourself

1:23:28

to the holy grill of being

1:23:30

a world champion putting assas in

1:23:32

seats and living out your dream.

1:23:34

Right on, man. I appreciate the

1:23:36

time. I look forward to the

1:23:39

next one. All right, Bray, we'll

1:23:41

catch you down the road. Appreciate

1:23:43

your time. Thank you. Thank you

1:23:45

for joining us for another classic

1:23:47

episode of the Steve Austin show.

1:23:49

Please leave a rating and review

1:23:52

on Apple Podcasts and tell your

1:23:54

friends. For more Steve Austin show,

1:23:56

go to Podcast One. Go to

1:23:58

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