I Listen So You Don't Have To: Steve Austin Show Ep. 167

Austin was back taking your calls on the latest show Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you're new, here's the rundown: I listen to a handful of wrestling podcasts each week. Too many, probably, though certainly not all of them. In the interest of saving you time — in case you have the restraint to skip certain episodes — the plan is to give the bare bones of a given show and let you decide if it’s worth investing the time to hear the whole thing. There are better wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but these are the ones in my regular rotation that I feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If I can save other folks some time, I'm happy to do so.

Show: Steve Austin Show
Episode: 167
Run Time: 1:25:10
Guest: None

Summary: Stone Cold is back working the phones this week during an NFL Sunday, and there’s a few mentions of that action as well as some dalliances into a busy college football Saturday. Callers have questions about finishing moves, Austin’s heel comedy work, the WrestleMania XIX documentary and protecting the business, missing out on working with Randy Savage, deer hunting, the current WWE women’s product, working with Vince McMahon and Donald Trump, working with unusual vehicles, post-Raw segments, CM Punk, King of the Ring 1996 and Sharkboy mentioning Austin in TNA. The match of the week is TLC2 at WrestleMania X-7.

Quote of the week:“In a world of make believe, you always want to make people at least believe in you.”

Why you should listen: The same reasons you always choose to listen to a Steve Austin call-in show: he has genuine interactions with listeners, the need to get to as many callers as possible provides a much crisper pace than his email shows and there are a few questions that get him into territory he hasn’t covered in earlier shows.

Why you should skip it: The same reasons you always choose to skip a Steve Austin call-in show: the listeners are star-struck, the host and guests ramble away from wrestling topics and Stacey inexplicably feeds Austin questions he’s already answered a dozen times.

Final thoughts: As Austin’s show format has stagnated during his recent reality show filming obligation, so too has my ability to offer anything of substance in terms of reviewing each episode. Basically, look at the list of topics. If you see something familiar, you can recount the story verbatim, if you see something new it’s probably worth a quick listen, but chances are he’ll get back to those points eventually as well. It’s not a bad episode, but as Austin says many times, it is what it is. You will not be surprised, but you might enjoy it regardless.