RECAP AND REVIEW: The Steve Austin Show with Dr. Tom Prichard (Part 2) on training Vince McMahon for a match, making his first blade, how Tom got Austin to finally think about his character, opening a wrestling academy with Kane

The Steve Austin Show – Steve Austin Still Likes Beer

Release Date: November 15, 2018

Running time: 1:21:00

Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo

DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

Intro:

• Steve is back at 3:16 Gimmick Street
• Coming up on the podcast is part 2 of his interview with Tom Prichard. They’ll be talking about the wrestling business and Tom’s new wrestling school.
• Check out http://jpwrestlingacademy.com for information
• For any suggestions, comments or questions, email questions@steveaustinshow.com

Tom Prichard – Part 2

Riding in a car with Tom and Brian Lee

• Steve has always had a lot of respect for Tom, who gave him a lot of information about the business.
• During one road trip with ‘Prime Time’ Brian Lee, Tom asked Steve ‘What’s so stunning about Stunning Steve?’ and asked Brian, ‘What’s so Prime Time about Brian Lee?’
• At the time, Steve wasn’t thinking about his relationship with the crowd. He was trying to be a mechanic and didn’t think about character.
• This is a story that Austin never forgot and at the time he didn’t have an answer for Tom. Tom was the first person that made Steve think about being a character.

• Tom remembers this conversation because that was at a stage in his career where he had been working for about 10 years. Also, at the time, Jerry Jarrett had opened a wrestling school and Tom would help out and tried to teach.
• Tom wasn’t sure if he could teach and you really don’t know until you do it. There were different ways to teach but there is no right way or only way. You go with what works.
• Tom knows what he should have done early in his career but he didn’t do what he needed to do. One of the things he says is you do whatever it takes. Tom did whatever it took to get into the business but when he got into the business, he passed on opportunities because he was in a bad place.
• Coming back to the story, Tom had seen guys change gimmicks all the time. Now he started thinking does Stunning Steve resonate. No it did not. Neither did The Ringmaster.
• He tells guys now to watch movies, listen to music, read the paper or books. Find something, even just one thing that resonates (with the audience), which is what happened to Steve with the Austin character.
• That’s when you find out who you really are. In Steve’s case, he is a redneck from Texas that likes to drink beer and is not a bad guy. Even at this stage in Steve’s life, that’s still who he is.
• Tom says Steve is still a huge influence on the business to this day but he still understands what it’s like when Steve first started.
• It doesn’t matter what Steve says to people, but people remember how Steve made them feel which is a quality not everyone has.
• A huge thing in wrestling is the ability to communicate with the people. In the ’90s, when Austin became Stone Cold he took that by storm. He was also the first guy to work with Vince McMahon

Tom Trains Vince

• Tom tells a story about Vince McMahon, who trained with Tom to get ready for a match with Austin.
• Vince wanted to get juice and Tom made Vince’s first blade.
• Vince got juiced during the match. Normally Tom wouldn’t go to Vince’s office after a match but he was happy that Vince used the blade. Tom said Vince did a great job with the blade but it turns out Austin busted him open hard way with a chair.
• Steve never knew that Tom trained with Vince when they were working together.
• For the cage match between Austin and Vince, Vince was going to take a bump off the cage. Tom and Vince measured it out in the studio and Vince practiced the bump a few times. During the match however, when he performed the bump on a table, he bumped off the table and the table didn’t break.

• Steve didn’t know Vince was going to take that bump off the cage until the day of the match. Had Vince landed 6 to 9 inches towards the center of the table he would have been fine however, he ended up landing on the spine of the table which is the worst place you can land.
• Steve was on the cage and it was like he was watching that bump in slow motion. His sell on that bump was a shoot. He couldn’t believe it.
• Steve says Vince would do anything to give the fans their money’s worth. He wouldn’t ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself.
• Steve said Vince was not a natural born athlete and wants to know what the protocol was when Tom was trying to teach the guy who owned it all how to work.
• Tom agrees Vince was not a natural born athlete but it was great and Vince was cool. All they did was lock up and took headlocks. Vince was always wanting to throw punches and even though Tom was covering up, Vince was beating the crap out of him. They even tried some Stunners.
• Vince would start out stretching. Tom would start circling in the ring and Vince would start circling. They would lock up and Tom said he was not the easiest guy to maneuver (which Austin emphatically agrees with).
• Tom respects the whole family because he’s been in the ring with all of them except Linda.
• Tom says sometimes they would be there late at night and that’s part of his work ethic you have to respect
• During that cage match, the adrenaline was in Vince so much that he was ragdolled Steve. Vince would throw Steve so hard that Steve couldn’t take a proper bump for him.

Kane and Tom Open a Wrestling Academy

• Tom says Kane was running for mayor and mentioned that lots of people were opening wrestling schools.
• Kane had a house and thought they could put a ring in the garage and have people stay at the house to start the school.

• There was a guy by the name of Devon Driscoll who owned D1 Sports who Tom trained and said would love to have a program at his gym. Kane and Tom talked to Devon and came up with the idea for a wrestling school
• Starting January 7th, Tom will have a 16 week course at D1 Sports. There is an open house on January 3rd where people can visit and ask questions. Training will be 5 days a week. They will offer one hour for strength and conditioning and 3 hours of wrestling. One night a week will be for character development. After the training, you get a certificate. Check out http://jpwrestlingacademy.com
• Steve thinks this is awesome, especially compared to how Steve learned at Chris Adams’ wrestling school.
• Tom wrote a curriculum but says they are going to start with the basics and get fundamentals. In 16 weeks you can’t learn everything and that’s where wrestling on shows in front of crowds is where you really learn the business.
• Tom says some days, you may not have it and not everything will be clicking. If you’re working on a simple move but it’s not happening, don’t dwell on it, move onto something else. You have to feel your way through the process.
• Regarding the curriculum, they will teach you the basics and by the end you should be able to put together a 15 minute match.

The State Of The Business and Retirement

• Steve says the business has evolved and asks Tom what he thinks of this evolution. Tom says it’s inevitable the world is going to change but that said, something that doesn’t change is the fundamentals. They’re also missing working with a veteran to teach the younger talent how to work
• Tom enjoys watching some aspects of the business knowing what he knows about the system. It’s a great system because there’s a lack of any other system. The systems of going up and down the roads, working the same towns and angles every night doesn’t exist anymore.
• Tom says he stopped wrestling in 1996 and was in the ring for 16 years.
• Steve left the business when he was 38 and wasn’t ready to leave. He did not have an exit strategy and it took him three years to decompress from the business.
• Tom says in 1996, he tapered off from wrestling and was training. He got released twice and the second time was harder for him to adjust because he was so used to being around the business.
• Even to this day, he is wired different because of what he’s done and he’s never had a ‘normal’ life anyways. He considers himself still in the business because it’s something that’s in you. It may not be the main part but because he was so ingrained in the business it’s something he’ll never get out of him.

Tom’s Wife And Rehab

• Tom will have been married for 18 years. He married the sister of Dirty White Girl (Dirty White Boy’s valet). They had a long distance relationship for two years and asked her to marry him.
• He calls her the best thing that’s ever happened to him. She helped him through some rough times.
• One time while they were on the phone, he fell asleep and she called an ambulance to pick him up. This led to him going to rehab in Atlanta. Eddie Guerrero was there too and they spent the summer there.
• Tom (and Steve) both talk wrestling lingo to their wives like shoot or gimmick

Steve thanks Tom for being on the show and wishes him luck with the wrestling school.

Steve and Kristen

• The both got back with from the Broken Skull Ranch 2.0.
• Kristen recently got a horse which was a ‘rescue’ horse.
• Steve wants to address some stuff that’s been on the interwebs lately.

Steve Still Likes Beer

• Steve confirms he has not been given alcohol and didn’t tell anyone he was giving up alcohol. The only times he’s stop alcohol is when he’s dieting to drop weight which is what he’s doing now. Plus he’s in the beer business.
• Broken Skull IPA is celebrating its three year anniversary.
• Steve confirms he is NOT a dope guy. He has tried it in the past but he doesn’t smoke.
• Steve also confirms he is doing DDP Yoga, which is more a calathestic thing (DDP actually doesn’t call it yoga either and wants to get away from that term for his workout program).

Steve and Kristen Climb A Hill

• Steve and Kristen went on a hike up a mountain. Kristen was training legs and Steve wasn’t sure if she could make it up the mountain. She made it halfway up and tapped out.

Steve Forgets His Stuff

• Steve went hunting with a few guys but he had to cut his hunt short by one day because he had to turn in a podcast. He packed all his stuff but forgot his binoculars which were really expensive.
• He also forgot his muffler and his gas cans. He called his brother in law to see if he could find his stuff. Happy to report, all of Steve’s stuff has been found.

The Wildfires

• Steve thought they were going to see all the smoke from the fires but the Santa Ana winds pushed all the smoke out and it was relatively clear.
• Steve was planning to go to Malibu, California for some business so he will see first hand.
• Kirsten’s mother lived in A Thousand Oaks but didn’t have to evacuate because the winds shifted the fire off course. She got lucky but many were not so lucky.

Show Wrap

Steve asks Tom Prichard and Kirsten for being on the podcast and that’s a wrap

Rating – 8.5/10

Another great podcast from Steve. I liked the second part of the Tom Prichard interview better than the first part but that was good as well. Hearing two vets talk about the business and I dug the story about Tom training Vince for the cage match. I don’t normally listen to pods when they have non-wrestling guests on but the second part of the pod with Steve and Kristen was pretty fun. Steve quashed all the rumors about him quitting drinking and smoking pot and he made the story about losing stuff really entertaining. Definite thumbs up recommend from me.

About Joe:

Joe is a long time wrestling fan from Toronto. He is a co-host on the Pull Apart Podcast with Jeff Rush and Caitlin Lavelle as well as a contributor to www.pwpodcasts.com. One of his life goals is to be a guest host on one of Wade Keller’s post-show podcasts. He doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert, he just likes wrestling. Check him out on Twitter and Instagram @ja113.