The “Steve Austin Show” on Podcast One
Guest: PWTorch editor Wade Keller
Release Date: March 15, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Corey Freedman
Top Items
– Both Austin and Wade really enjoyed the WWE Roadblock event. They especially enjoyed the stripped down production style, which Wade says leads to more focus being put on the actual wrestling.
– Austin really enjoyed the NXT tag team match, and he praised both the team of Enzo & Cass, as well as The Revival.
– Wade criticized WWE’s lack of promotion for Brock Lesnar’s match on this show, and he thinks a Lesnar match should never be thought of as simply a throw-in on a show.
– Both praised the Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose match. They talked about the excellent storytelling and pacing of this match. They think Dean Ambrose comes out looking much stronger from this match. They also speak very highly of Hunter, especially pointing out that he was in incredible shape.
– Austin and Wade agree that this match set a very high bar for Roman Reigns to reach at WM32.
Subjects Covered (w/timestamps)
0:00 – Sponsor Ad
0:30 – Introduction
6:30 – Sponsor Ads
7:40 – Beginning of interview with Wade Keller
9:45 – WM32 build
15:05 – New Day vs. Sheamus/Wade Barrett
20:00 – Sponsor Ad
21:30 – Jericho vs. Swagger
27:00 – Enzo/Cass vs. The Revival (Dash and Dawson)
35:15 – Wade Keller’s information (PWTorch.com)
37:35 – Sponsor Ads
40:00 – Charlotte vs. Natalya
50:55 – Brock vs. Harper w/Bray Wyatt
58:22 – Zayn vs. Stardust
1:05:07 – Sponsor Ads
1:06:20 – Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose
1:28:30 – Interview ends/Conclusion
1:30:52 – Show ends
Show Highlights
Introduction: Steve and his wife Kristin are getting ready to leave the Broken Skull Ranch after a great trip. Austin talks about lawn work and finding deer horns around the ranch. He talks about the women on the Broken Skull Challenge. He also previews the last few episodes of this season of Redneck Island. On March 16 (3/16), Austin will be relaunching brokenskullranch.com to find all of his products and projects.
Wade Keller intro: Wade joins Steve to review WWE’s Roadblock. Austin thought it was a hell of a PPV with a lot of good matches. Wade thought it was a solid thumbs up. He enjoyed the stripped down nature of the show in terms of production. Wade thought that made the in-ring action feel more important.
WM32 build: Wade feels lukewarm on the build to WM32. He says they have to come through with the go-home shows. He doesn’t think we can judge the main event build because Roman Reigns hasn’t been on TV for a few weeks. Wade thinks the Shane-Taker match is one of the only ways they could build excitement for the event, even though he has plenty of problems with that storyline (namely a 46-year-old executive being a credible challenger for Taker). Reports have WWE having sold over 80,000 tickets so far for WM in Dallas. Austin asks what the actual attendance number was for the WrestleMania in the Silverdome. Wade brings up Dave Meltzer reporting the actual attendance number was closer to 78,000, not 93,000.
New Day vs. Sheamus/Barrett: Wade and Austin were not thrilled with this show-opener. Wade says the New Day is very hit or miss. Whether he finds some skits funny or not, Wade enjoys that the New Day are all completely all in with the gimmick. He talks about how they were originally a babyface act but now embrace when their jokes don’t land with a sense of self-satisfaction. Austin thought this was a standard match to open the show. Wade agrees and says it played the role an opening match should.
Jericho vs. Swagger: Austin made a note during the show that this was a terrific promo. Wade calls it one of the better promos in years. He praises his ability to turn a crowd that wanted to cheer him, against him. Wade thinks Jericho has been on-fire lately. He says everyone in the back should be watching Jericho right now to see how to get actual heel heat. Wade suggests fans watch the promo without sound to see how Jericho acts like he truly believes the insults he is throwing around. The two didn’t find this match to be anything special, but it was a serviceable eight minutes or so. They both note it served the purpose of having Jericho get a nice win before WM32.
Enzo/Cass vs. Revival: Austin didn’t know much about Dash & Dawson, but he really enjoyed this match. He says Enzo and Cass have great chemistry together and called Dash and Dawson a great tag team. Both hosts note that Enzo and Cass got a great pop. Wade explains Dash and Dawson’s gimmick to Austin (that they don’t necessarily look super threatening/imposing, but when you watch them work as a team you take them seriously). Wade praises The Revival as taking us back to classic tag team wrestling, namely with their psychology and strategy working together throughout the match. He talks about them working a body part as part of a concerted effort as an example. Austin thinks there is a great future for both Enzo & Cass, but he thinks the sky’s the limit for Cass. Wade talks about how far Cass has come as he used to look visibly nervous in front of the camera. He really likes the dynamic of Enzo and Cass with the huge size difference between them. Austin was very impressed with this match. He thinks Enzo, Cass, and Carmella have great chemistry and work great as a unit. Wade liked the placement of this match. He says not every match has to be designed to be the best match on the card or to get “this is awesome” chants.
Charlotte vs. Natalya: Austin enjoyed that this match didn’t rely on too many high spots. Wade loved 85-90 percent of this match. He really liked the backstage interaction before the match. He says Natalya has a tendency to over-emote but thought she portrayed a great attitude during the backstage segment. Wade thinks the division as a whole is doing a better job at telling more nuanced stories in the ring. Austin notes that it was interesting that Charlotte seemed to have the upper hand for most of the match. Wade thinks they wanted Charlotte to look strong ahead of her triple threat match at WM 32. He also says that Natalya looked undisciplined being distracted by Ric, as he thought Ric’s antics weren’t enough to warrant giving up a submission hold. Wade isn’t a fan of babyfaces looking undisciplined in the process of heels getting heat. Austin wishes Charlotte had used the trunks when rolling up Natalya because that is the true heel move. He thinks a heel should cut corners at every opportunity. Wade praises Charlotte’s body language and the attitude she has been presenting recently as great heel work. Austin criticizes a moment where Charlotte paused too long after not being able to put Natalya way, and he thought she needed to show more urgency. He thought they put on a great match overall, though.
Lesnar vs. Harper: Austin has a short set of notes for this match. He wrote down “very physical, big as hell (meaning Lesnar).” He thought this match was very physical, and Harper got some nice moves in. Austin thinks Harper could have a big future if booked correctly and given some opportunities. He calls Brock’s Suplex City gimmick “magic.” He thought the match served its purpose of getting Brock ready for Dean Ambrose well. Wade is critical of the set-up for this match, namely that they advertised this match as Bray vs. Brock. He also thinks the WWE should have promoted Brock more as he thinks anytime he fights it should be treated as a huge deal. He thinks it damages Brock’s brand that he was fighting and the WWE barely promoted it on the lead-up. Wade didn’t understand why Bray was able to make the match a 2-1 or that even after that Bray basically let Harper lose. He asks why the commentary team didn’t explain either of those things either. Wade calls this a missed opportunity because Harper vs. Lesnar could have easily been a big deal. Austin talks more about the potential in Luke Harper. Wade doesn’t think it’s too late for Luke, but he thinks the time to really move with him was a couple years ago.
Zayn vs. Stardust: Steve enjoys Sami Zayn’s entrance. Wade jokes that people use Zayn’s entrance music as their alarm to put them in a good mood. They talk about how NXT talents have been able to create such large amounts of buzz around them. They point specifically to the reactions for Enzo/Cass and Zayn on this show. Wade points to the classic promotion style of NXT having a ton to do with those reactions. However, he doesn’t think Zayn plays well off a gimmick like Stardust’s. Wade talks about Stardust being one of those gimmicks that Vince and crew don’t devote a lot of time too after the initial run. Austin calls it a solid match, but nothing to write home about. Wade, again, thought this match served a good purpose of giving the crowd a little break between Lesnar and the Triple H-Ambrose main event.
Hunter-Ambrose: Austin calls this an outstanding match. Wade was shocked when he saw the running time of that match. He calls it a testament to Hunter for his in-ring IQ. Austin thinks this was Ambrose’s best match of his career. Austin praises the referee for his realistic looking count when Ambrose had to get back into the ring. Austin compliments the pace, selling, fire from Dean, and leadership by Hunter. He says this was classic Hunter telling a great story with his wrestling. He liked that even when they did some stuff outside the ring, they always quickly got back in the ring. Wade agrees with everything Austin said. He called this a clinic in pro wrestling. He talks about how Vince used to use Hunter and Shawn Michaels as primary examples of how to change wrestlers styles after the hardcore style of the Attitude Era, and that this match was a great example of why. Austin liked that Hunter didn’t always have a look of complete disbelief when Ambrose kicked out. Austin can’t even really find any areas to improve the match.
Wade brings up that many people were concerned about Dean looking weak. Austin definitely does not think Dean looks weak losing to Hunter, especially in the manner he did. He doesn’t think losing to Hunter hurts Dean one bit. Wade agrees. They don’t think Dean getting caught by the Pedigree after beating the 10 count makes Dean look weak. Wade also points to Dean getting a visual pin over Hunter, even though it wasn’t a full three count. Steve thought this match made Dean more than he was before this match started. Both Austin and Wade think Dean looked great with the top dog in the company in the main event of a show. Austin enjoyed that this match was a fairly simply booked match, but it was very effective. Austin can’t praise the storytelling in this match enough. They enjoyed the lack of a ton of high spots. Austin says this match really sets the tone for the WM32 main event with Roman Reigns. He notes that Reigns has to reach a high bar that Dean has set. Wade thinks this will be a character defining match for Reigns, namely that Reigns will have to be in great shape as Hunter clearly will be. Wade believes that Reigns can certainly silence some critics should he deliver a performance like Dean did at Roadblock. He reiterates, though, that this will speak volumes for Reigns given that a failed WM32 main event can’t be blamed on Hunter after he showed the kind of shape he is in on Saturday. Wade doesn’t agree with any sentiment that Roadblock didn’t help build to WM32, and he again praises the simple production value of this show.
Conclusion: Austin suggest anyone that didn’t watch Roadblock check out the show on the WWE Network. He specifically suggests the main event between Hunter and Dean Ambrose. He thanks his sponsors as well.
Score and Review
Score (10): Once again, this duo delivers an excellent podcast. This review is essentially the same as any other time Austin and Wade get together for a show. They waste no time getting into the subject matter and cover a ton of ground. This week, they reviewed the entire Roadblock event and card, giving ample time to each match on the card. As always, this is a must-listen for wrestling fans. Austin and Wade provide excellent insight into the most recent WWE PPV event that every fan should hear. These two have an undeniable chemistry together and their commentary is some of the best in the business. Simply put, Austin and Wade deliver entertaining discussions that cover the latest WWE happenings in great detail.
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