I Listen So You Don't Have To: Steve Austin Show Ep. 193

Rosenberg trades the co-host chair for the guest spot on the Austin show this week Photo Credit: Deneka Peniston

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: 193
Run Time: 1:14:26
Guest: Peter Rosenberg, part one (25:02)

Summary: Austin opens the show with a few stories about his recent RV travels, and eventually he welcomes his guest, New York radio personality and Cheap Heat podcast cohost Peter Rosenberg for part one of an in-person interview (the second is due Thursday). They talk about music, life in Los Angeles, how Rosenberg got into into hip-hop, his various radio gigs and celebrity feuds and his favorite football team, the Washington Redskins. Eventually they start talking about wrestling and how Rosenberg became a fan, as well as thoughts about some of the older commentators and their strengths and weaknesses.

Quote of the week:“When CM Punk and Daniel Bryan became two of the top three or four biggest starts in the company, and I told Punk this and he geeked for it, he understood what I meant, I said, ‘You guys are like if Mos Def and Talib Kweli became the two most popular rappers in music.’ So I champion those guys, I champion the CM Punks and Daniel Bryans of hip-hop. And some of them, like Kendrick Lamar, have now made it to the John Cena position, and that’s very exciting for me. It’s great business for both of us.”

Why you should listen: If you enjoy Rosenberg on Cheap Heat or any of his other outlets, you’ll probably like him here. His personality is pretty much what you’d expect from how he presents elsewhere, and it’s somewhat amusing to envision he and Austin sitting down at 316 Gimmick St.

Why you should skip it: If you listen to Cheap Heat, you already know well where Rosenberg stands on Vince McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon as announcers, as it’s been discussed at length in recent weeks. If you come to the Steve Austin Show to hear wrestling talk, skip all the way ahead to about 57:25, because everything before that is just chitchat about stuff quite unlikely to move any of your needles.

Final thoughts: Rosenberg grates on me on Cheap Heat, and as such I wasn’t at all looking forward to this episode. It was much more tolerable than I expected, though perhaps that’s because they spent so little time discussing wrestling and the ground they covered was familiar. I remain cautiously pessimistic about part two on Thursday.