The Steve Austin Show
Release Date: January 9, 2018
Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo
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0:00 – Intro
Steve starts off talking about the upcoming college football national championship game with Alabama and Georgia. He says he’s picking the Alabama Crimson Tide to win but is a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs because he was a huge Herschel Walker fan. He switches gears to the NFL playoffs with Tennessee vs. New England, Jacksonville vs Pittsburgh, Atalanta vs. Philadelphia and New Orleans vs. Minnesota. He’s picking New England, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Minnesota to win their respective games.
Coming up on the podcast is Ed Leslie a.k.a Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake. He was on the podcast a few weeks ago and is coming back to promote his book Struttin’ and Cuttin’ as well as answering questions that were submitted by the fans. They will also be talking about wrestling in Japan.
14:25 – Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake
Steve starts by saying Brutus was in Boston and asks why. Brutus says he had to take care of some old business and had a court date (which all worked out) however he couldn’t get out. He was there on Wednesday and tried to get a flight going anywhere south but all flights were booked. Steve talks about how difficult the weather can be when travelling especially in the winter. He talks about loving Chicago but hating the weather. Brutus tells a quick story about a flight he had and the weather was at -35 with the windchill. They had to unboard, have the plane de-ice then run back onboard and take off before the plane took off. Steve tells a quick story about flying on a private jet which was the exact jet that Payne Stewart flew was when he crashed.
Brutus talks about taking a long flight to do a tag match with Greg Valentine against the British Bulldogs on Saturday Night’s Main Event. This leads to Steve asking what it was like working against the Bulldogs (19:34 into the podcast). Brutus responds that he loved working with the but said that they were green and that he and Valentine had to teach them and bring them up to a more main event style of work.
Brutus adds that he learned the most when he was a heel and loved having control of the crowd. Steve follows up by saying both the Bulldogs were technically sound but needed more work on the entertainment aspect. Brutus agrees that they could both go but they needed to slow down when they worked. However, Brutus said that he trusted both Davey Boy and Dynamite. He continues by telling a story about wrestling the Bulldogs at a sold out show in the old Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens where all four of them got color at a house show. Brutus goes on to say it has been a long time that a tag team match sold out a show at Maple Leaf Gardens or any arena (as a quick aside, I live in Toronto and I can confirm that Toronto was and still is a huge wrestling town. Also, the Maple Leaf Gardens is no longer there but was the home of pro wrestling in Toronto for decades).
Steve asks what Brutus thought whenever he was asked to get color and what was the mindset back when Brutus was wrestling (24:09 into the podcast). Brutus said it was not as intense back in the mid-80s. He says Greg Valentine liked getting color but overall, it didn’t matter to him. He goes back to the Bulldog match and says it was one of the only times he can remember when four guys got color. They also get into a brief discussion about guys who would cut themselves vertically instead of horizontally such as Dusty Rhodes and Curtis Iaukea. Brutus was a huge fan of Iaukea and said he cut great promos but didn’t see him work in the ring.
They talk about Brutus’ TV and movie work (Thunder in Paradise) and how initially WCW did not want to bring Brutus in because he couldn’t use the Brutus Beefcake name due to Vince trademarking the name.
Steve asks when Brutus got out of the business. Brutus says he left the business when he was turning 60 as well as being able to get some government assistance for his physical condition.
31:41 – Questions from the fans
Q: What did Brutus do post match to chill out after a show
A: Brutus says they would have a few drinks with the boys at the hotel bar. Austin says he also liked to have a few drinks at the hotel lounge instead of going out on the town and asks if Brutus liked to go out or if he was a lizard lounge (I think he meant lounge lizard). Brutus said for the most part, he was a lounge lizard but adds in his early days he would go out on the town.
Q: Can Brutus talk about how the idea of the Booty Man character came about.
A: Brutus wasn’t sure how this came about and says it was probably because Hulk Hogan saw Brutus in one of his outfits and made a smart comment like ‘look at the Booty Man. He’s got a big booty sticking out’. He adds he really had no clue how he got that name.
Q: Who came up with the Zodiac character.
A: Brutus said he was working on the Mr. Nanny movie with Hulk Hogan. There was one scene where Hogan’s character would have flashbacks to when he was in the wrestling business. Brutus was part of the flashback scenes along with a few other wrestlers. Hogan said that Brutus was too recognizable so Brutus went to the makeup lady. At the time he was wearing black and white striped tights and asked if the makeup artist could paint his face black and white and call himself the Zodiac.
Q: Did Brutus know how defining of a moment the Barber Shop segment would be on Shawn Michaels career? Related question, what was it like to be a part of one of the most infamous tag team splits?
Brutus said he knew what was going to happen but they did not have a lot of verbiage or rehearsals. He winged it out there and says it went over perfectly. Brutus goes on to say he didn’t realize how bad it would go for Marty Jannetty who stumbled and was gone. Brutus says Marty was a great worker and was the best part of the Rocker team. He felt bad for Marty and thought Marty deserved a better chance. Steve says the angel came across as a good shoot and people thought it was real. Steve asked what Brutus’ thoughts were on that. Brutus said it went over well and that they were able to pull it off. He was honored to be part of it.
Q: How much did Brutus like his time during the ’90s in WCW wrestling under various gimmicks. It looked like Brutus was having fun in the ’80s as Brutus Beefcake but didn’t see that fun in the WCW.
A: Brutus says that’s a pretty good observation. He said the WWE days were great and WCW wasn’t as much fun because there wasn’t as tight a bond and the direction wasn’t there. However, at that point he was just happy to have a job and collect a pay check to support his family. He also says he tries to go with the flow and to improvise, adapt and overcome.
Q: How was it wrestling with Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine
A: Brutus says Greg is the perfect wrestler. He was a tough guy but guys called him the turtle because he moved slow. Greg taught Brutus the ropes around New York City and the road in the early ’80s. Brutus said they had a blast and were always together.
Q: Can Steve and Brutus talk about their diets and favorite lifts or training routines.
A: Brutus says he was doing the Atkins diet at 40 and got really lean on the diet getting down to 220 lbs. He was doing high volume training doing supersets and giant sets in the gym not lifting heavy weights but getting a good pump. Steve says his physique depended on how hard he was running, how much he was drinking or staying out late. Steve talks about losing a lot of weight when he was in the USWA because he wasn’t earning enough money to eat.
Q: Before Brutus’ parasailing accident, was he in line for run with the Intercontinental Championship?
A: Brutus says yes. This was actually the second time he was promised the strap (which he never won). The first time, he was supposed to win but the Ultimate Warrior threw a tantrum so Vince changed a PPV at the last minute and put Warrior with the Honkey Tonk Man. Brutus ended up working with Ron Bass, who he had been friends with since 1976. Then he beat Mr. Perfect Curt Henning at WrestleMania, ending Curt’s streak, which was supposed to lead to an Intercontinental Championship but then Brutus’ accident happened.
Q: What does Brutus think of his stint with the NWO particularly the feud with the Ultimate Warrior and how did the WCW compare to the WWE
A: The NWO thing came about because they needed people. Hogan suggested Brutus, however, they didn’t want to use him initially. Brutus lost 40 lbs, grew his beard out and nobody recognized him. Hulk introduced him and gave him the name the Disciple.
Q: In 1990, Brutus ended Curt Hennig’s undefeated streak, however, the announcers did not make a big deal out of it. Was the original plan to have a program for the Intercontinental Title at Summerslam and why didn’t the announcers make a bigger deal of ending Curt’s undefeated streak?
A: The plan was for Brutus to get the belt from Mr. Perfect. Brutus adds that if it was up to him, he would have made a bigger deal about ending the streak but he says that was the way the WWE was about things and there was nothing he could do to change it.
Q: The run ins Brutus did on Dino Bravo, Earthquake and others after the boating accident never seemed to anywhere. What was the direction supposed to be and who created the outfit he wore during the run-ins?
A: These run ins were never going anywhere. The doctors did not want him wrestling at all but that was all Brutus ever knew so he had no choice. The run ins was his way to test the waters to see how he would react in the ring without having to wrestle. After he did the run-ins, he talked to Vince and Vince wanted him to take more time to get more comfortable as there was no rush to get Brutus back in the ring. They did the Barber Shop segments and after that, Brutus returned to the ring.
Q: How did Brutus like working with the Honky Tonk Man
A: Brutus says he’s known HTM since early in his careers so known him for a long time. He’s never had a problem with Honky and they’re all good.
Steve switches gears and asks Brutus about working in Japan (57:33 into the podcast). Brutus says he started going there in 1980 and talks about how he ate a lot of spaghetti there because he didn’t like Sushi. He never had to work with any of young boys but got put right in with the main eventers. His gimmick was the Wildman Ed Leslie. Steve asks what the communication process was like working with the Japanese wrestlers. They put Brutus in with Seiji Sakaguchi who was the booker at the time. Hogan told Brutus that Sakaguchi usually didn’t do more than 4 or 5 minutes a night and told him how to wrestle with Sakaguchi (i.e. don’t hurt him). They had a good first match and from then on he was married to Sakaguchi and had an easy time.
Steve asks how Brutus handled travel and living in Japan. Brutus talked about eating yakatori chicken and being able to get beer out of a vending machine.
Steve asked who were the main event guys in that period in Japan. Brutus mentions (Antonio) Inoki and (Tatsumi) Fujinami. He also mentions Masked Superstar and that he wrestled Hulk Hogan. He says that working a main event in New Japan was a breeze because all the main event guys could work. Steve agrees that the main event guys could work, however, some of the younger and mid-card talent may be stiff or try to test you. He also talks about injuring his tricep during a tour in Japan leading him to a story about doing a six man tag with Arn Anderson and Ron Simmons (1:05:32 into the podcast).
During the match, Ron Simmons was working stiff with the Japanese wrestlers, which lead to Arn making a comment about being glad not being in the ring against Simmons. Brutus tells a quick story about being sent to Japan with Paul Orndorff as a tag team working mid-card talent (1:06:50 into the podcast). Neither he nor Paul wanted to sell and they would work very stiff with the Japanese talent. One of the Japanese talent told them he and Orndorff were two stiff which surprised Brutus because they didn’t think there was such as thing as ‘too stiff’ in Japan. The next night, they were even stiffer but eventually started working with the Japanese wrestlers after those first few matches. Brutus mentions Adrian Adonis was in Japan in a tag with Dick Murdoch and tells a story about Adrian Adonis and how he messed up a bathroom stall. (I don’t know the decency parameters for the pwpodcast website so I’m not going to go any further with the story but have a listen as it’s both hilarious, disturbing and disgusting all at the same time. It happens at 1:10:18 into the podcast).
Steve and Brutus have a quick discussion about Bruiser Brody. Brutus says he didn’t get to work wtih Brody and only met him a few times. Both Steven and Brutus loved his work and thought he was a machine in the ring. Brutus said they he could be both a good babyface and heel.
Steve asks Brutus how his book is coming along and Brutus says it’s going well. He also has a new edition coming to his family and will be setting up book tours. Check out his website (www.brutusbeefcake.com) or his Twitter (@BrutusBeefcake_) if you want to find out more info.
Steve thanks Brutus and signs off.
1:16:57 – Show wrap
Austin says he’ll be training after the podcast. He’s got his diet dialed in and is trying to gain some mass. He thanks his sponsors and that is a wrap.
Show Rating 8/10
I’m a huge fan of veteran wrestlers talking about wrestling back in the day. One of the things you’ll notice in this podcast is Brutus’ love of the business. The stories about Japan were funny.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
14:25 – Brutus Beefcake
19:34 – Working with the Bulldogs
24:09 – Getting Color
31:41 – Questions from the fans
57:33 – Working in Japan
1:05:32 – Steve, Arn Anderson and Ron Simmons six man tag match story
1:06:50 – Brutus, Paul Orndorff tag in Japan
1:10:18 – The Adrian Adonis story
1:16:57 – Show wrap
Writer Bio
Joe lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two boys. He’s been watching wrestling for about 40 years (give or take) but don’t consider himself any sort of expert. He just likes wrestling. Check him out on twitter and instagram @ja113.
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