A Geek History of Time - Episode 291 - The Fall of the Hitman and the Rise of the Rattlesnake Part II

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

See, people when they click on this, they'll see the title, so they'll be like, poor Ed. What does that even fucking mean? However, because it's England, that's largely ignored and unstudied. I really wished for the sake of my sense of moral righteousness that I could get away with saying no. He had a god damned ancestral home and a noble title until Germany became a republic. You know, none of this highfalutin, you know, critical role stuff. So they chewed through my favorite shit.

No, I'm not helping them. I'm going to say that you're getting into another kind of, you know, Mediterranean, or psyche archetype kind of thing. Makes sense. Also trade winds are a thing. Ha ha, just serious. Like, no, he really has a mad on him. Yeah, we'll go upon a tangent. As we keep doing.

Like, yeah, this is how we fill time. I'm going to go ahead and get started. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history teacher at the middle school level here in Northern California. And I have now been working in middle school long enough that it only took me half a second, like real time, it felt longer, but it was really only about half a second to translate. Jen Jen's Jen Alpha now slang fly when confronted with a situation in my class. I had a student mentioned that, you know, I got ops in this class. And like, it took me half a second and I remembered what that meant.

And like, the first thing I thought was, you're well, like it took me half a second and I remembered what that meant and Like the first thing I thought was you're 12 like how How can you have enmity with anybody? That serious at at that age and and then a little bit later I figured out oh my god I figured that out way too quickly and I Kind of I'm kind of angry That I that I got that that There's a part of me that's angry

That my brain has been has been infiltrated by by that slang which of course then just means that I need to, you know, wear an onion on my belt, a red onion, because that was the style at the time. Yeah. So, so yeah, that's, that's been my recent experience that that left a mark on me this week. How about you? Well, I'm Damian Harmony. I'm a US history teacher up in Northern California at the high school level And I've told you about how my daughter and I play trivial pursuit D&D Yeah, and it occurred and I played it with you and yes, she's Cut throat. So yeah, well it occurred to me That I'm terrible at it because I know nothing and it's just

kind of an exercise of watching her go around the floor, which is fine. I don't mind coming in a distant second in a two-person race. However, in order to make it more sporting and more fun, I went up to my office and I grabbed something that I have moved from my first apartment here in Sacramento to my second apartment here in Sacramento to my house. So it has been in every domicile I've had in Sacramento, it has been through two marriages, and it has the dust of all of those places. I brought down my Star Wars

Classic Trilogy Trivial Pursuit. dust of all of those places, I brought down my Star Wars classic trilogy trivial pursuit. Oh shit. Now I have not opened this since my first marriage because there's no point in making my next wife who knew nothing of Star Wars to play that with me. That is the absolute alpha Chad move. It's as Ohio as it gets. Oh I hate you. So goddamn I'm dating I'm dating our episode because none of this shit will make any sense in six months I can only hope such as the development of language. I can only hope yeah

Anyway, so I brought it down and I'm okay with I'm at peace with that So I brought it down. I dusted it off. I open it up. I said you asked me questions from this stack I'll ask you questions from your stack there you go, and it made it a much more fun game So that turns it into an actual gunfight it actually yeah, that's yeah, but I also knew that we were recording So I didn't bother opening up any of the wedges I'm like don't fucking worry, but Luke Skywalker was going around the board against a gelatinous cube So that was also kind of fun. You know it's just a little munchkin II. That's that's fucking awesome

That's like yeah, that's that's peak. That's peak nerd dad right there. I applaud you sir Yeah, well done. Well done. Thank you So let's see when last we talked yes was going to be July 22nd 1996 but actually I had to go back a little from that specifically one Now just to reset you in case you've forgotten in the last week, it's the first time Steve Austin is asked about Bret Hart as he's continuing his ascent. So the night before July 22nd,

according to the Julian calendar calendar is July 21st right yes think that still holds so the night before saw the pay-per-view called international incident and I believe it was an in-your-house international incident this is this is in the nascent see of pay--views. WWF at the time was running its big tent pole pay-per-views. It ran WrestleMania in March slash April. Sometimes it'd be beginning of April, sometimes it'd be end of March. They would run SummerSlam,

which was almost always in August. They would run Survivor Series, which was originally it was on Thanksgiving Day. Oh wow. Because fuck your workers. Yeah right. And then they would run Royal Rumble, which was in January.

So you had the four tent poles. Right. And then around those, you had all of these in your houses. It was an in your house. And what it was was like a baby pay-per-view. So normal pay-per-view was two hours a WrestleMania was often three

Jamin at Christmas. Yeah, okay now it's now WrestleMania is a two-day event Yeah, it's it's like it's like a second night. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, so Actually, it is like hodge. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, so actually it is like Hodge. People do straight up treat it like, Yeah. Yeah, they treat it like a pilgrimage. It's wild. Yeah. But okay, so you had mania, which was a three hour ordeal usually, okay?

Give or take a half an hour. You had the others which were about a two, maybe two and 20. And then you had the, uh, the, in your houses, which were usually about an hour and a half. And some of them would start to expand, but that was essentially the model. Um, they started, yeah, yeah. I want to interject with a question here. So, so you have the four tent poles.

And since we're talking about the pay-per-view model mm-hmm in 96 six yeah What was the? What was the comparative price between like one of the tent poles and? Mania one of the baby, okay, mania would cost you 30 Okay, one of the other tent poles would usually cost you 20 Okay, and they tooled around with the price of In your houses sometimes they were 10 sometimes they were 15

Okay, all right. Yeah. All right, so just kind of getting an idea of what the literal buy-in Yes for somebody to okay, absolutely okay, so in addition to those being, they were basically, they were bigger than a RAW, which didn't, which did exist by this point. They were bigger than a RAW, which was only an hour for the longest time. Then by this point, RAW was two hours.

There was always war and then the war zone. And it was essentially Vince McMahon trying to Create a threshold or what's that called? Is that what it was in Britain where like after a watershed a water shed? He was trying to create a watershed like like creep free yeah 9 p.m. You know no no gore on the screen no Nudity yes that and then after 9 p.m. Okay, the kids have gone to bed So now we can we can we can get the serious language and get it to other stuff. Yeah. Yeah So, you know pre 9 p.m. You're gonna see a plumber come out and fight a hockey goon

9 p.m. You're gonna see you know, somebody stomp a mud hole in someone's ass, right? Okay, so The international incidents was an in your house it was one of your standard pay-per-views They were starting to introduce the king of the ring pay-per-view as a fifth pole, but a very junior pole Okay, okay And it was in in some ways It was a way to highlight Brett Hart's abilities when they first instituted it because it was right after WrestleMania 9 and Essentially Hulk Hogan came back stole the belt

Like there's a whole story there And Brett was kind of fucked and then Vince was like we're gonna feature you in this big pay-per-view And it'll be the last time Hogan has the belt because he's gonna lose to Yokozuna, but you're going to be the king of the ring. We will feature how good a wrestler you are. You're gonna beat three guys in one night. They're all gonna be very different style and all this. It was cool.

Okay, all right, cool, cool. Yeah, so, so in 90s. Now at this time, and I'm sorry to be, you know, messing up your rhythm here with these questions, but like at this time Raw is on what the USA Network okay? It's on USA all right means it gets preempted by the Westminster dog kennel show every year You're fucking kidding that ass dead Wow yeah Wow okay?

Nitro has come out by the way, which okay first show of nitro Actually was in 95 so no this is during when nitro is doing its thing Um, the very first show of nitro was the night that raw got preempted, which is just brilliant Yeah, well, yeah for wrestling. There's a dog show. Here you brilliant. Yeah. They're like, Oh, you're looking for wrestling. There's a dog show. Here you go. Yeah. Come over to TNT. We're in the Mall of America.

Okay. And we're live and Hulk Hogan's there and Sting is there and Jushy Fender Liger is there. Oh Jesus. We just got, and we just got Lex Luger to show up and he had been on a contract just last week, you know, right? So this is this is the point at which McMahon and Turner are having their massive

Okay, they're they're rich guy pissing contest. It's about to get really goddamn serious because This is July of 96 in Because this is July of 96. In July, I believe it was July of 96, and I think I talk about this, but in July of 96, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, you remember from the Madison Square Garden curtain call incident, Diesel and Razor Ramon,

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash have gone to WCW and they're doing this takeover angle where they're like, you know You know who we are, you know, you don't know what we're here to do and they just start bringing baseball bats to the ring And clearing house. Right, right They become the outsiders. That's never a name they claimed. It's it's given to them by mean Gene Oakland actually and they challenge sting Lex Luger, and Macho Man Savage to a match at Bash at the Beach.

Bash at the Beach that year was in early July, it was actually just before this incident that I'm about to talk about. Okay. At Bathshed the Beach, the two of them took on those three. Okay, and they were like, we're gonna bring our partner, don't you worry. And everyone was like, who's the third man?

Who's the third man? And early in the match, Lex Luger gets taken out on a stretcher. Sting hits him with an errant stinger splash while he's also hitting Scott Hall. Right. And, you know, Lex takes the majority of it. So he has to be stretchered out. So now it's two on two. It's, you know, it's it's Savage, Savage and Sting versus versus Hall and Nash. And it's now it's like, oh, you don't have the advantage. And then Hulk Hogan comes to the ring

when they're when these two guys are getting their Ass kicked and he's gonna save everyone and that's where he does the leg drop on Macho Man Savage Turn right right and it comes a heel. So that's July 7th So I'm talking about okay two weeks later Okay, right. So I mean big fucking deal that and he says what you're looking at is the new world order of wrestling, brother You remember those episodes? Yes So we are in the thick of it and nobody knows what lightning in the bottle they have caught yet Right right on any side, right? So yeah

alright, uh On any side right so yeah all right So it's it's July 21st. It's a very weakly stacked card right or the right the champion Shawn Michaels Has turned face and he defeated Bret Hart just three months earlier at WrestleMania He's paired up with the other two faces who were getting a good rub at that time to go against something called Camp Cornet. And this is Jim Cornet.

He is a manager. He has a stable, which includes the British Bulldog Owen Hart and Big Van Vader, who in WWF is just called Vader. Vader had been a huge star in Japan. He was a formidable career making heel in WCW. But actually during his time in WCW, I don't think he ever beat Hulk Hogan. But he was a monster, right? And he still had all that gravitas and he wrestled stiff and he never washed his gear. Okay.

So, but in this run in WWF, Vader never really seemed to click with the audience either. And I think this is what happens when you have somebody whose confidence gets shaken by the people around him. Okay. I don't think he was confident in his abilities because the WWF system is a very different system And he was used to working really really stiff and the guys didn't like being clubbed to death by a 450 pound man

Yeah Understandably remember Vader's the guy that had his eye popped out Right. Yeah, and kept going. Yeah, he's a human. He's a walking refrigerator yeah, like they called him the Rocky Mountain Mastodon like Yeah, that's day so So he never clicks with the audience much and so he got in a good push and set up too But it just kind of fizzled out and so Vader, Owen and the Bulldog, British Bulldog,

all had already wrestled as a team at WrestleMania 12. So it's kind of a stale match. Sean was supposed to be teaming with Ahmed Johnson, who was a really big buff, like just kind of like if the ultimate warrior was black and Okay, I had a gimmick of I came from real fucking poverty Super yoked super cut incredible body minimal capabilities in the ring, but insanely good intensity and charisma Okay, all right

The other person was on the beat. Yeah, so he could really sell a promo, but he was not a shooter well Not only was he not a shooter. He couldn't work um That's really what matters and his promo sucked too. I Mean he was captivating, but when you if I were to read you transcripts of him you'd be like You lose the thread. Yeah He was as good as his dance partner was Okay, honest as a wrestler. He was about as good as Kevin Nash was I think because Nash

was Good enough to keep up with good people Okay, but he couldn't really do much on his own. He couldn't generate rise above that. Nash, on the other hand, was incredible on the mic. Johnson wasn't and Johnson rubbed the boys in the back the wrong way. And ultimately, I think Johnson, maybe he was less than Nash to be honest because Nash could

take direction and stuff like that Johnson just he was he was the ultimate warrior but black he was okay yeah clumsy didn't seem to regard people he injured people a lot yeah yeah anyway the third person that was supposed to be on their team was in fact the Ultimate Warrior. Oh wow. But the Ultimate Warrior no-showed a bunch of house shows from about March until June after a disappointing return at WrestleMania and an equally disappointing feud with Jerry Lawler and then he'd quit the company. Now WWF had brought back the villain Psycho Sid.

Big dude dude huge charisma again, not a good worker, but like just Electrified the audience somehow looked amazing despite looking kind of weird and Was semi injury prone But you know could be guided through a good match They brought him back He had previously been known as Sid Justice and Sid Vicious.

And now he's Psycho Sid and it's S-Y-C-H-O, because why not? Yeah. But Sid then turned babyface and saved Sean and Ahmed from a Team Cornet beatdown a few weeks earlier. So, their side is set now. It's Sid, Johnson, and Michaels. So three people the audience is pretty high on versus three people the audience knows not to like, but they're not really generating that much heat. Okay.

Okay, so WWF has, yeah. So the prior two pay-per-views saw a feud between Sean and Davey Boy Smith the British Bulldog which made some sense that they would be on opposing sides um and their feud made a lot of sense in and of itself uh because um Sean and Davey Boy had been orbiting the same titles throughout most of their careers. Sean had, I think he had knocked Davey Boy out of the ring for the 95 WrestleMania, or no, 95 Royal Rumble.

So there's, you know, there's good stuff there. It had a lot of potential, but quite honestly, the WWF seemed to run a bit dry creatively with Sean So one of the things that you do when you put a belt on somebody who's new is you make sure that the other side Of the roster is stacked Right if you're if you're champion is a bad guy, it's because you have a lot of baby faces Okay, and if you're champion is a baby face you have a lot of really meaningful heels Okay. And if you're champion as a babyface, you have a lot of really meaningful heels.

They didn't have that many meaningful heels, but they did have very popular babyfaces. And again, the audience definitely cheered for Sean and liked him a lot, but he wasn't anchored into any real feuds. Right. He didn't even have a good heater feud at this time. So there's no really solid dance partner for Sean to imperil him and make the fans love him the way that they started to As he went into mania as the challenger, right? There's He he has run into a narrative problem. Yes. Yes. Yeah, there's no there's no there's no plot line that he can be plugged into If Brett's gonna leave after man, you need to have a parallel plot going along. Yeah, you need to have another arc. I mean, personally, fantasy booking, you should have had Owen step in.

Okay. Because Owen's always making hay on the fact that I beat my brother, Brett, at WrestleMania 10. Owen hates Brett. Owen's a heel. And now Owen's gonna finally get his chance at the title against Shawn because Brett never did it. Now he can keep Brett's name in the narrative and he is an incredible wrestler and he could work so well with Shawn like size-wise. They didn't do that very much. They would use him sporadically,

but you have him be the heater feud to establish that, you know, Sean, because then you've got all kinds of stories you could tell. Because then after that, then Davey Boy can step in and be like, you beat my little brother-in-law. Right, okay, yeah, yeah. That could give you four months of story until Brett comes back,

and then you've got a great story of Sean beating every member of the Hart family that's in wrestling Nice like you could have yeah, you could have stacked that out and then you have him fight a monster, right? As a heater feud while Brett gets ready while Brett goes through whatever Yeah, that could get you to mania and mania is where Brett gets another title shot blah blah You could have been done so much better, but it wasn't and that's fine. So okay, so you said that they didn't have The WWF at this time did not have a lot of credible heels right was was part of that because of

the the wars and people Leaving to go to WCW. We weren't like going in as much massive numbers as they would about a year later. Okay. Okay. So this is just a... This is a broader narrative kind of issue. Also, Brett had spent his championship beating all the credible heels. Like, anybody who was is meaningful he'd already already right now it could be again you could easily line it up as like well we

couldn't win against Brett but we can get this guy and then you're establishing Sean's credibility right um Sean originally had hoped to work diesel and razor and and one two threeKid and all his friends, but then two of his friends left. Right. And, you know, Hunter was still too far down the card to be meaningful. And again, WWF didn't have that many meaningful heels because this is the mid 90s. Their creativity was low. Again, it was the occupation era.

Everybody had a job as a wrestler, you know, right? Right. Yeah. Plumber, the race car driver, the this, the that, you know, the Minotaur. So also known as Mantar. Yeah. So you see why they didn't have credible heels. Yeah. Oh, Yeah, so you see why they didn't have credible heels Yeah, oh Credible writers yeah, you know it just it was there are low points all right I mean, yeah, well, yeah, Lee field is really stepping in and in Marvel like there's low points Oh, yeah, there's yeah, well and and this is I want to say off the top of my head

This is the point to make kind of a parallel comparison the the other major Commedia del arte genre of American culture in soap operas on on Days of our lives you're getting to satanic possession stuff Oh and like this the second or third time that you're lane has been possessed and yeah an alien showing up and like

Are you really all this desperate like yes? All right. Well, you know what? We'll just we'll we'll have another demon show up and right now the demons evil twin Like what the fuck demons good twin, but he's misguided, you know, yeah Like what the fuck? Demon's a good twin, but he's misguided, you know? Yeah, like, okay, yeah, got it. So in reality, I think that the fans actually loved Shawn Michaels, but they didn't quite believe in him.

And I think it was largely due to the fact that he didn't actually believe in himself because he was in his early, early 30s. He was young, he was brash and cocky, but he was gaining a reputation in the back for being difficult to work with. He abused pills and alcohol and he did this to like push away all the shit that he'd never dealt with. And now he's got all the pressure of being the man. I genuinely think that like there is that imposter syndrome working its way in him. Like some people have said that the only time that Sean lived

was in the ring, the other 23 hours and 30 minutes he was trying not to. Wow. Yeah. And those are his best friends talking about him like and oh I did it in a way that was just insufferable to everyone He started demanding his own dressing room and he was the first since Hulk Hogan to do that Wow, yeah, so there's no clear number one face that the people truly believe in in the summer of 1996 Okay, the summer of 1996 and Americans have no clear hero at the top of the game Anyway the next night back to this right right Steve Austin calls out Bret Hart for the first time on TV and then then the week after that, so that was July 22nd,

he calls him out July 29th. Steve Austin fought The Undertaker on Raw's main event for the second time in two months, absolutely healing it up the whole time, including the attempted handshake and then begging off to start the match, right? So like the match's going, you know? And at this point, Steve Austin still does a number of wrestling hold attempts with

The Undertaker, but he also does the brawling and the high impact maneuvers that he later would become known for. But Steve Austin spends a lot of time during this match begging off. spends a lot of time during this match begging off. Chicken shit heel stuff. Right, right. Nasty heel stuff, right? And I think honestly that this was a good way to show that the Undertaker was on a championship path and that Austin was a nasty heel. Austin was one of the first wrestlers to interrupt what later

become known as the old-school maneuver. So Undertaker would twist your arm and then he'd climb up on the top rope using the turnbuckles. He'd walk across the middle of the top rope. Seven-foot Undertaker. Jesus Christ. Six-nine. But still seven-foot Undertaker. He's holding your arm, in other words you're balancing him, and then he comes down crashing down and drops his you know Giant meaty forearm on the back of your head, right? later on that gets called the old-school move cuz okay when he went to become a motorcycle rider um

he He did that move at one point cuz he had to freshen up his thing. Everybody was done with darkness. Shit. So now he's doing a brawling undertaker as the biker gimmick guy. And at one point he twists somebody's arm and he shouts to the crowd and everybody pops really big. And then he climbs up and does the move that demonic undertaker had done.

Oh, from then on, it's called old school all right 10-4 but so everybody knows old school if you know undertaker you know old school okay so he's doing that maneuver and steve austin actually fucks with the ropes and causes taker to crotch himself he's one of the first ones to do this then austin starts using the ropes to strangle Undertaker. And then he makes sure that the ref is looking over here while he crotch shots him, you know, behind. And he's he's working for counts on like chokeholds and stuff like that. Steve Austin is absolutely the nasty heel here. Right. Right. OK. All right.

He'll heal here right right okay all right now. He's uh Austin also did the move that later would be known as stomping a mud hole so You get a guy in the in the turnbuckle and you kick him in the gut and he falls And then you just keep kicking him in the chest a whole bunch of times while you're holding on to the ropes And you're just kicking and kicking and kicking and kicking and then you walk to the middle of the ring And you come back around you kick him one more time stomp on a mud hole right got it now normally later on when he develops it as a move he does the stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp turns around talk shit the

whole way to the crowd like just you know he does the head waggle thing and you know that motherfucker I'm gonna he turns around flips him off and then kicks him again, right that comes later. This wasn't that This is the this is before the trope has been codified for the yes for that move All right So he doesn't do the shit talk walk and the flip off because he hasn't found his flip off feet yet But he has been working the nastiness of it, the nasty heelness. Now the announcing team of Jerry Lawler and Vince McMahon pushed the hell out of Stone Cold Steve Austin being the toughest wrestler that there was. And then Austin starts jawing at the Undertaker who is down.

Still no fingers, but he is chin wagging at him. He's also doing the head waggle back and forth as he's talking shit. Ultimately, mankind comes out to interfere at the very end of the match, keeping the reputation of both men intact. Austin doesn't have to lose. Taker doesn't have to lose. Right. Austin technically gets a victory based on a countout,

because Taker gets out and chases Right. Okay. Austin technically gets a victory based on a count out because Taker gets out and chases mankind. Okay. So Austin is taking on the baddest bull in the woods and he's holding his own. He doesn't get a pinfall victory on him, but he shows that he can hang. And he's still here. Right. Now at this time, Bret Hart was home recovering from a few injuries, letting his body heal. Like I said, trying his hand at acting. He was on Lonesome Dove. Right, right. He also, at that point, met with a documentary crew who'd end up getting unrestricted access to the backstage of WWF. Okayed by Vince McMahon himself.

Oh, wow. Okay. stage of WWF, okayed by Vince McMahon himself. Oh, wow. Okay. The reason for this is cause at this point, so when Brett says, Hey, can we do that? Vince sees this as yes, we need media attention because we are losing steadily in what is now known as the Monday night wars because from June 10th, 1996, for the next 83 straight weeks, WWF lost in the ratings war. Share?

Yeah. No, they lost head to head. They kept losing. They lost. Yeah. Wow. Really? Yeah.

Damn. 83 weeks in a row. After that, it flip-flops a little bit, and then the WWF just sails right past them. That's over a year and a half Yes, and that's basically the NWO story. Oh Okay. All right. So that wow, it's it's real obvious. Yeah, and it's a little past that too. Okay Yeah, yeah. Well, it makes sense that there'd be some inertia that you have to overcome after that was over. But yeah right, so Brett Well, it makes sense that there'd be some inertia that you have to overcome after that was over but yeah Right. So Wow

Brett Remember he's off he gets right that okay And then he parlays that into bargaining up his contract in order to return Because he was a truly free agent at this point Because his contract had run out right now This was a known thing and he knew he and Vince knew that they would be renegotiating contract before he came back anyway Right, but because Vince is losing and because Vince needs his number one star back and all these things This is going to mean a lot of money for Brett

This is going to mean that Brett has a better bargaining position and you know my bias It's double here. that's my favorite wrestler of all time and it's a work and and fuck the man yes yeah so and it's and it's a Vince McMahon yeah so it's like a triple yeah there's no objectivity on my part here yeah so and to be fair there shouldn't be like oh this is Vince fucking McMahon talking about yeah, like come on Yeah, I always love when like baseball players go on strike or when you know basketball players go on strike or something like that People like well, it's just millionaires fighting with billionaires

I'm like there is a scaling issue there that you don't seem to get because the words rhyme Yeah, I don't Let me let me explain to you what each one of the zeros difference there means. Like let me difference between the millionaire and the billionaire is so much more vast than you and the millionaire. Yeah. Yeah. Which is fucked by the way. Like, yeah. Wow, but yes So like in the total of my career I think I might make a total of two million dollars You add up every year that I've been working since I was 14 until I finally retire

I think I'll come out to about two point one or something like that Yeah, and that's with a really strong union bargaining up our wages lately Like yeah, I don't know what the minimum for the NBA is But I also know that I am a lot closer to that guy and that guy is to the owner Yeah, so I know who I'm siding with anyway So Brett puts across this idea to Vince and Jim Ross, who was, I think, head of talent relations at the time. He says, I'm gonna come back.

I'm gonna come back with a chip on my shoulder about losing to Shawn Michaels. We've already done kind of the preliminary work about how I'm upset about how the match went, but I accepted the results. And then we'll angle it toward a rematch where I'm gonna barely beat Shawn at WrestleMania 13, and that'll set us up for a third match and Shawn's gonna beat me clean in the ring and I will shake his hand at the end and

that will be me passing the torch okay that's what he says that he put across to Jim Ross and Vince McMahon I'm inclined to believe him having read his autobiography or his memoir rather. I'm also inclined to believe him just because of my biases. Now, interestingly enough, Brett and Sean ended up on the same plane and next to each other for the first leg of Brett's trip home to Calgary from New York after having met. Sean was flying out to another show obviously and they spoke a bunch to each other and Brett told him, here's what I'm trip home to Calgary from New York after having met. Sean was flying out to another show, obviously, and they spoke a bunch to each other,

and Brett told him, here's what I'm planning for my return. Here's what I'm gonna pitch, including the final match. And according to Brett, he said he saw the color drain from Sean's face, and that that wasn't what Sean had planned. Brett, at this point, still prided himself on being a company guy, and he had planned to help make Sean the next big guy because he knew that he yeah Sean was Several years younger than Brett and Brett is getting close to 40 and back then that was fucking ancient now

Yeah, like I should show you 40 year old wrestlers from the 80s compared to 40 year old wrestlers now Oh, you would be stunned. Fuck. Yeah, I'm sure. Like 40 year old wrestlers now are like kind of some of the younger guys. They because they figured out nutrition and they don't do the drugs and yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, they're better taken care of, you know. Yeah. So anyway, back to July 22nd, 1996, two weeks earlier,

like I said, Hogan turned heel and the NWO was formed. Vince McMahon saw that and said, Oh, my God, I've lost the narrative completely. I need to rethink everything I'm doing, including his negotiations with Bret Hart. So Vince took a plane from Yakima, Washington, where they had a house show up to Calgary because he needed to secure Bret's continued services. Please, please, please come back.

Hogan just turned heel and it's a very hot storyline. And Holland Nash, who I built and he did, are up there making money hand over fist for that company. I not only don't have them, I also like, you know, I have no ideas. Yeah, I have no ideas and I'm without my main star. Yeah. So at this point, Vince McMahon does what he rarely ever does he discussed other wrestlers pay Wow he really was desperate yeah, so Vince told Brett that Sean and taker were both making north of

70,000 a year and He told Brett. That's what they're making just please name your price so okay hold on yeah I need I need to I need to pause there okay because now this is 1996 1996 yeah so you know numbers are gonna be sure lower than they would be today. But even taking that into account, sure. With the size of that operation and the amount of money they were making from, from, from the pay per views and all of that, that feels like, like extortionate, no, not extortionate, like the reverse of extortionate, like, like

exploitative. Thank you. That, that, oh my God. Yeah. Like these are, these are household name. Yeah. These are household name celebrities. These are, who work like dogs. Yeah Hey 300 days a year usually Jesus okay travel and all that now remember out of that seven hundred thousand. There's a bunch of Their own money that they have to spend Wait and that's something I thought it was 70 you said no 700 Okay, I'm sorry 700

It's still exploitative by the way. Yeah, no, it's still I mean even even changing it by a factor of 10 when you take into account the the The expenses they're being expected to pay out of their pocket to make him a buck Jenna that's ridiculous. Yeah. So fucking and they were reimbursed for a lot of travel by this point, but previous to this generation there weren't. Yeah. And and and those are the two top paid guys, right? Like you said, so there's other guys that are not making anywhere near that

amount of money who are working just as hard and punishing themselves to do it. By the way, 700,000 back then is roughly double the value now. So it's about 1.4 million now. And just for more perspective, Mick Foley in 1998 was making about 400,000 a year That's what he was aiming for now. He ended up making a lot more because the business got red-hot, right? but GD mini, okay, and and

Like I want to know Like it's something I'm gonna look up after we're done. It's like, okay, what were what were It's something I'm gonna look up after we're done is like, okay, what were what were Comparable basketball players making that's a good question baseball players making yeah You know and not have a nice their own expensive and not guys in the league at that time I mean we're talking Jordan. We're talking What's his face Shaq yeah Yeah, so you know guys like that Yeah, I'm trying to think of like what his rookie salary was Shaq's rookie salary was three million Yeah, that's you know

That's nuts. Yeah, it's nuts. So. They were underpaid so much. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay. So we're at the end of July. Brett is nowhere to be found on WWF TV and the only real mention of him is a passing comment by Stone Cold Steve Austin who's on his own tear building up his character as

a nasty heel. We are still a ways off from the middle finger flipping jaw jacking never letting up relentless heel that he'd later become but at the same time we see foreshadowing of it with Savio Vega and Mark Merrow as I had said last time right? Right. Okay on August 5th 1996 Raw had a battle royal. Now battle royal very simple in the days, if you threw a man over the top rope, that was an automatic disqualification because it's so dangerous to fall that far.

Right. That's the reason. So you do not get to throw a man over the top rope. What this is, is it gives you another chance at a different finish. Right. Very clever, right? Now, Raw held a Battle Royal. Battle Royal's rule is 20 guys in the ring there anywhere from six to 20 guys in the ring and

The only way you can be eliminated is if you are thrown over the top rope So it's a very dangerous thing you know kayfabe right right in reality the most dangerous part is being in the ring Because it's really falls into your ankle you're fucked Yeah, okay. Yeah, I make sense falls into your ankle you're fucked. Yeah okay yeah that makes sense. So the winner of this battle royal would go on to face the champion at the night after summer slam. Now what's notable here is that the undertaker and mankind eliminated each other they kept fighting throughout the arena back to the ring and back out again. I love that., this is the ECWification of wrestling in a lot of ways, which really is just the Philadelphia take

on the Memphis-ification of wrestling, which Memphis is the Floridification of wrestling. There have been plenty of times where people battled and brawled all throughout the building and shit like that, but it was hyper rare and it never happened in WWF the last time I remember something like this was at the Slammys Where Harley Race and Hacksaw Jim Duggan fought each other throughout the Slammys? is ridiculous, okay, anyway

So this is one of those hearts is broken moments for things to come. Austin was part of the final four and He did the standard dirty heel tricks mostly they built up Sid but also they built up the boiler room brawl between Taker and mankind Owen and Davey boy come back from the dressing room having previously been eliminated to distract Sid which of course is gonna make him shine more and It allows Austin to be able to eliminate Sid without weakening Sid Now eventually Austin gets eliminated and eventually Ahmed Johnson gets a title shot Which is going to feed into his feud with Farouk Who is actually Ron Simmons who?

Was the first black champion in WCW. Wow. Yeah. All right. Now, at SummerSlam, there is still no Brett, so now we're in August. And Steve Austin wasn't even on the pay-per-view that we all would see. He was on a pre-pay-per-view match

so that the audience there would see. And he gets an upset victory over former champion Yoko Zuna. Oh wow, okay. So it's a big deal and you've got all kinds of photos from it and you could certainly show this match later and to show how dominant Steve is getting, but it is a dark match.

And it's wild to me that you have Steve Austin who's not even jerking the curtain here in August of 96. And you have a very cold program between Sean and Vader to close it all out. Actually, this is kind of the match that I wouldn't say ended Vader's career in WWF, because he'd still be around for like another year or two Mm-hmm, but it ended any chance that he had it at a top push He and Sean had terrible chemistry and Sean was a bitch about it Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like at one point and Vader fucked up He was out of position Sean was gonna go drop the elbow on him from the top rope

Vader was out of position. So Sean jumped off the top rope and landed right next to Vader with both of his feet and then ooted him in the fucking head and shouted at him to move. Like breaking kayfabe. Now the thing is, Sean had played a petulant heel before, so now you're kind of seeing petulantel shit again. So, you know, the audience could kind of be like, whoa, there's a different side of Sean we haven't seen in a while, but in reality, he's being a bitch. Okay. And Vayner's fucking sucked. Like, they really did.

The boiler room brawl was the real attraction, and that's a recorded match that happened backstage, in a boiler room. And that means then that like the audience is watching the action on a screen not in the ring. Like in fact Vader and Sean had such dismal chemistry that Sean tanked any and all possibility thereafter of there being a return bout or a feud that went anywhere near Survivor Series with Vader. And that was kind of the plan that Sean would be taking on monsters until Brett got back. Now, the next month, Sean would have a heater feud with Mankind, leading to one of the best matches I've ever seen, actually. leading to one of the best matches I've ever seen actually. That was at September's pay-per-view called In Your House Mind Games and actually in Mind

Games see Mick Foley, mankind is such a genius that he got Sean's brutal side over while still letting Sean stay heal or say stay face rather. Oh really? Yeah and basically it's like showing Sean's not just a sexy boy. He can fight. He can brawl because mankind's style of a match necessitated Sean being more ruthless, having to tap into being more cruel and more brutal than he had been previously. Okay. Because McFauley is just a deranged monster and it's just it's it's it's you can't just hurt him. Okay, mankind was the was the the gimmick with the kind of leather face looking. Yes. Kind of get up. Okay.

Dressed all in brown at this point, by the way. Right. And and just a whack job. Yes. Character. Okay. He'd pull his own hair out during matches. Yeah, there was one part and he would do this weird squeal sounding kind of like Ned Beatty in Deliverance as he's hitting people or choking them. He's like You know, okay. So so yeah, he was he was really really playing up the yes the

Psychotic deranged. Okay got it. So this means that Sean in order to beat him has to get Got it. So this means that Sean in order to beat him has to get Deep into the dark parts of his soul in order to yeah produce the brutality and it worked really really well It absolutely deepened Sean's character Got him closer to being a heel which he'd become the following year after WrestleMania 13 But I'm getting ahead of myself. So after Sean's heater feud with mankind

Michaels would then drop the belt to Sid, Psycho Sid at Survivor Series after Psycho Sid fully turned heel Okay. Sid came in as a baby face in July. By November, he's full heel Even at mind, the month earlier, Sid is a baby face. In fact, he comes out to interfere with the match against Mankind. Now, the next night on Raw, August 19th,

so that was eventually November. So Mind Games was in August, August 18th, August 19th, it's a show on raw Sid starts moving heelward, but it's a really slow pace There was a four-man battle royal which it's not a fucking battle royal, but okay It's just lazy like you need at least six men for battle royal and even six is too few you need ten Okay, but Austin was part of the battle Royal and he and the other three men got rid of Sid and then Sid came back in and slammed them all. But in that we saw foreshadowing for things to come again.

Vega threw out Austin, but Austin slid back in despite the ref trying to stop him. He then got thrown out again by Vega, but this time Austin came back and waffled Vega, which kept Goldust in the match and Goldust ends up winning. And I think the winner of that one got to go on and fight for the Intercontinental title. Now it's August of 96. You could probably tell me what happened in the ultra liberal bastion of San Diego in August of 1996 August of night. Oh The Wait, yes

Republican National Convention. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I actually worked at it. I know Yeah, yeah, so like I said the ultra liberal bastion of san diego And and and you know with all the sarcasm that's in that as I was working as a parking flunky in front of the convention center Across the street Apartment windows across the street from us there were

At least a dozen. It's the economy stupid signs Oh wow that people had up sure like it is also college town so yeah well not not that part of town, but You know that that that that should have been an omen not not just like Yeah, not just a oh well you know downtown condo city-dweller You know liberal types, but like no no this is this is San Diego like we're a Navy town and like Yeah, yeah, so you're you're fighting a losing battle here You know Bob you're so and you're in trouble nearly 2,000 delegates descended on the whale's vagina Where Bob Dole got nearly you don't remember that reference I?

Don't oh it's from Anchorman All right, yeah, okay. Yeah, that's a good way. Well, it's Virginia Yeah, I think it means it cuz it came it brought my favorite line from that whole movie Which was she's like no it means st. Diego and then his responses agree to disagree Yeah Yeah, but anyway I'm like, you can't do that. It's a translation. I'm like, no.

Yeah. But anyway, 2,000 delegates descended on the vagina of the whale, where Bob Dole got nearly 97% of the delegates' votes. Pat Buchanan got 2%. In fact, Pat Buchanan withheld his delegates and his endorsements and then staged a rally in Escondido on the eve of the RNC because he was insulted by the small role that they offered him at the convention

Such a fucking Yeah, yeah, I'm such a goddamn prima donna yeah, yeah, you can and was He wanted to be centered asshole. He wanted to be centered and he wanted to be featured and they pushed him to the margins This is from the New York Times on July 30 of 1996 So this is ahead of the the the R&C, right? Officials in the Republican Party and the Dole campaign have had competing concerns While some in the campaign worried that the losing but lingering Republican candidate would reprise his culture war speech in the 1992 convention, party leaders wanted to avoid the appearance of muzzling a prominent Republican.

Now just real quick, like you take some of that civility out and the idea that the party still has a say in what's going on, you could have taken this and applied it to 2023 and 2024. Oh, 110%. Yes. The losing but lingering Republican candidate would reprise his culture war speech like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, Pat Buchanan, Pat Buchanan was the

was that was the the beginning. The the his his particular cyst within within the Republican Party is is the root of what has become Trumpism mm-hmm like yeah yeah I I do not disagree I think I'm at these points when I discuss the NWO yeah okay well there we go okay so back to the quote so on Saturday Haley barber the chairman of the these points when I discuss the NWO. Yeah. Okay. Well, there we go. Okay. So back to the quote.

So on Saturday, Haley Barber, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, offered watery compromise in a telephone conversation with Buchanan, a brief appearance and videotaped presentation, an offer similar to that presented to other losing Republican candidates. A Republican official familiar with the offer said Buchanan would have made a 15-second appearance in a 7-8 minute presentation on values." Wow. Now this was largely because Bob Dole was trying to grab back the centrist Republicans and Pat Buchanan was specifically keening rightward. Remember the culture war speech in 1992,

which helped lead to the contract with America. Quote, this is back to the article. But Republican officials said that Paul J. Manafort, who is managing the convention for Dole, wanted to freeze Buchanan out. It is possible, as Dole tries to appeal to centrist voters, that an outraged Buchanan raising a ruckus outside the convention hall Could make Dole appear more moderate

It was the Manafort thing wasn't it fucking Manafort Fucking mmm, okay now the thing is dole is Absolutely, he was trying to humanize the party in a way that bush had actually and that Reagan hadn't He focused on his world war two service record his desire to unite Republicans and the country and his willingness to work with everyone So basically a cuck liberal socialist Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, obviously, I mean obviously was a pink. Oh, obviously Rhino massive massive pink painted Rhino. Yeah fuck

Gingrich was also denied any prime time positioning at the convention. There's a fucking course he was it's Fucking I divorced my or I didn't even divorce I just cheated on my wife who was dying of fucking cancer. Yeah Yeah, and And and was was at least as far right well almost as far right and Buchanan was Yeah Cannon was far right with principles Gingrich was far right with principles. Gingrich was far right. I disagree with most of his principles. But they were principles.

Buchanan was a true believer. Gingrich was ahead of his time. And yet he was an echo of McCarthy. Because he didn't believe in what he was doing. He well, yeah as an ascent to power Oh totally hundred ten percent, but when I say he was ahead of his time, I'm thinking of all of the right-wing grifters Yes, who've attached themselves to the to the Trumpist movement like well and honestly Dole paved the way for that in the 2012 election Yeah, that's when he said you know, what did he say um It was it was oh Feelings are facts Remember people were starting to delineate between those things yeah, what what's a fact that they feel that way therefore and it's like yeah

Okay, everybody sees through what you're doing. Why are people believe? Why what are you? What's wrong? He didn't get out of the cocky duty car like yeah, I had my Kathy Bates moment there Yeah, so anyway Gingrich was denied prime positioning at the convention Bob Dole was really leaning into the humanity thing convention, Bob Dole was really leaning into the humanity thing. Right. Yeah. And the people running the convention really wanted it to appeal to the mass media audience. And none of it worked because while they were talking the talk, their actual platform was a far more conservative platform than it had been in 1992.

Well, because the Democrats had stolen the moderate platform, the Democrats had swung right under Clinton in the prior four years. And anything that looked middle of the road, they had eaten up. So in order to differentiate themselves, the Republicans had to have a more conservative platform. You know, if anybody had had the foresight to think about what was actually going to be best for the country, it would have been, okay, look, our platforms are very, very close to each other. You know, what we're what we're what we're gonna

You know try to try to point out to everybody is is these issues kind of on on the edges? and You know it probably wouldn't have bought the Republican Party the presidency But it would have Well, it did buy them the contract with America because they said we're not running on anything that we can't get 60% on yeah well they did that they attacked the middle just from a very very different perspective than well not from a very different person they kind of out Clinton Clinton yeah they did

they totally did so now but they managed to do it from well yeah they yeah they did it right word. Yeah now dole was 74 at the time so a bit young to be running for president, but That shouldn't be as funny as it is He swore up and down that the Republican Party was an inclusive party a broad party with quote many streams of opinion and points of view He also said, quote, tonight I stand before you tested by adversity, made sensitive by hardship, a fighter by principle, and the most optimistic man

in America. He then continued to push the we are also inclusive rhetoric by saying, quote, if there's anyone who has mistakenly attached themselves to our party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion, then let me remind you tonight this hall belongs to the party of Lincoln and the exits which are clearly marked are for you to walk out of as I stand this ground without compromise. End quote. end quote That you know that sounds really great and you know Fuck I feel like Morgan Friedman at the end of Shawshank. I wish

Yeah Like you know what what happened to that? Yeah Like you know what what happened to that? What do you remember the 1980 debate between it was a primary debate between Reagan and Bush and they were having a compassion off Yeah, who was more nice about illegal immigrants? Yeah, I know I Talk about I wish like Liberal socialist cuss son of a yeah, anyway, Tommy's Damn it don't continue talking about how honorable compromise now real quick

Just let me go back to to to Reagan because I feel like I haven't bashed him enough with that He would say whatever Well, yes, okay, so so I'm not gonna pretend that that. He would say whatever the fuck it took. Well, yes. Okay, so I'm not going to pretend that he actually had principles when it came to that. Bush, I think, was a principled man who was also saying whatever it took. But the fact that both of them saw... It's kind of like when I saw corporate America pushing LGBTQ stuff as merch. Yeah, I'm like, oh, oh

We've turned a corner here Yeah, because corporate profits overall Well, yeah, and they think that queer folk are a profitable thing to support that's worth losing Other people's support over. Yeah, we've turned a corner. Well, because, because. So when Bush and Reagan are both competing to see who can appear the most compassionate to illegal immigrants, that's a big moment. Yeah.

And when Dole is sitting here saying, like, I am all about sensitivity and compassion, and if you're not down for that, get the fuck out of here. I know that, like, that's not why the Republicans were voting for him, but the fact that he thought that was a viable strategy was a good sign. Yeah. So, now he continued talking about

how honorable compromise was, by the way. Remember when compromise was a thing? And by the way, he's reacting. When the concept actually existed in Washington. Now he's reacting as the Senator from Kansas seeing what happened in the House under Newt Gingrich who blew up any and all cooperation that he could. He's saying that compromise is honorable, it's not a sin. Quote, it is what protects us from absolutism

and intolerance. And that was essentially how he saw politics working. Now imagine a politician from that grand old party talking about absolutism and intolerance as a thing to avoid. Yep. So he considered himself- I wish. Yeah.

Bob Dole considered himself a bridge to the past, to bring forth the honor from the past, but work with the goodness of the present. Now, despite the conservative platform, okay, now again, what he's saying that he thinks will get votes compared to what the actual platform was is why I don't trust it. But despite the conservative platform, which included saying this, quote, this is the Republican platform in 1996.

Today's Democrat leaders do not understand leadership. They reduce principles to tactics. They talk endlessly and confront nothing. They offer not convictions, but alibis. They are paralyzed by indecision, weakened by scandal, and guided only by the perpetuation of their own power. We asked for change. We worked with them. We offered cooperation and consensus.

Now the asking is over. The Clinton administration cannot be reinvented. It must be replaced. Republicans do not duplicate or fabricate or counterfeit a vision for the land we love. With our fellow citizens, we assert the present hour of timeless truths." I'm just going to break in real quick. First of all, you haven't really mentioned your own party until the third paragraph. Secondly, I don't hear a single fucking policy.

Now this is somewhat the preamble, but still. Your preamble starts with, those guys are very bad and weak and here's how. Yeah. Okay. So nothing positive there. It's convention, it's convention pablum. Yeah, but this was their written platform. This isn't just people talking at people.

Oh, alright. So, quote, this is what we want for America. Finally, a fucking policy. Real prosperity that reaches beyond the stock market to every family, small business, and worker. An economy expanding as fast as American enterprise and creativity will carry it free from unnecessary taxes, regulation, and litigation.

And they still couldn't get the votes, but okay. Yeah. Now it's really something to read their platform because it was laden with compromised language and inclusive language, but the actual efforts it made were far more restrictive. For instance, quote, "'This too we want for America,

"'moral clarity in our culture "'and ethical leadership in the White House. We offer America not a harsh moralism, but our sincere conviction that the values we hold in our hearts determine the successes of our lives and the shape of our society. It matters greatly that our leaders reflect and communicate those values, not undermine or mock them. The diversity of our nation is reflected in this platform. We ask for the support and participation of all who substantially share our agenda. In one way or another, every Republican is a dissenter.

At the same time, we are not morally indifferent. In this, as in many other things, Lincoln is our model. At a time of great crisis, he spoke both words of healing and words of conviction. We do likewise, not for the peace of the political party, but because we citizens are bound together in a great enterprise for our children's future." Which sounds pretty dope. Yeah, but then you look at the actual policy points in that and you're like, okay, I mean, it's really great that you're saying all of this about inclusion But you're literally pushing for programs that are gonna leave people on the edge of starvation

Yeah, and like you say you're not doing a harsh moralism and then you're gonna do harshly moralistic shit also just like it's kind of like um, there's this great SNL skit of two competing dentists having competing commercials back and forth. And one of them, at first it's a so and so, he's very kind, he does this. And the other one, so and so, he's very kind, he does this. And then about two or three commercials in it,

went through the whole night, it was great. And says, and we promise, we won't feel you up in your sleep. And it just starts escalating from there. We are not drug users. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just this. Yeah. Like that's oddly specific. And was there a question like yeah like But like again, you know, we you know moral clarity in our culture. You're in you're in Intimating that we don't have one

And ethical leadership in the White House again Saying I mean they they they loved to do that shit. Yes, because I mean Let's let's I mean, let's be honest. Yeah uncle Billy Gave off skis ball vibes. He did like consistently because I mean, you know in in the the harsh light of history You know revealing things he he he was Yes, he's bald and so like okay. That's that's an opening They're gonna they're gonna capitalize on is it like a legitimate policy thing right not really so they're using yeah

It'll be like if if Nixon went after Johnson's Personality instead of his policy Right, you know which which why? Think about you think about who those two men were and it really says something about the era They worked in that neither of them did that Well, it's not because as soon as you start doing it the other guys got plenty on you like it well, yeah I mean we're talking about John. Let's just yeah, yeah, let's just stick to policy here Let's have a gentleman's agreement. We're not going we're not gonna bring up any skeletons. That's one of our closets here You don't mention the bathrooms. I won't mention the poker. All right, right? Okay. Yeah, there we go

So then they said in their policy or in their their platform quote The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children. Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection of that right against those who perform abortions. We oppose using public revenues for abortions, and we will not fund any organizations which advocate it. We support the appointments of

judges who respect the traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. That is that is a legacy from Reagan having co-opted. Well, and given co-op whom? Yeah. Yeah. But it's it's it's it's a clear carryover from from the Reagan. Yes. Era. Yes. Because because that was that was the time period during which

evangelical groups in the United States shifted from a very profoundly anti-political stance, like we're not, that is of the world and that is not our thing, we're not going to do that, into this very politically active, you know, two or three issues, you know, heavily, heavily focused abortion being the biggest one. Well, I think, you know, Reagan was their debutante ball, but during the 76 primary, they sent out invitations. Okay, fair. 26 primary They had sent out invitations Okay, fair. So yeah, because really when they really started galvanizing was after the Supreme Court case that said busing is constitutional And they were like, oh our kids have to go to school with black kids

Yeah, yeah white Southern evangelicals. So yes, what? oh midwestern ones do Yeah, granted a case 2.0 got started in Indiana. Yeah, right. Yeah, but yeah, you know And so so seeing that you remembering that being part of the platform in 96 I think if I remember right it had been softened in 92. Yes remember right it had been softened in 92 yes but now again because culture war issues what we have to use in order to differentiate ourselves because the center has been stolen from us so it hadn't been softened so much as it had been assumed because 92 Republicans were fighting from a position of power they were incumbent let the Democrats try to make the case for abortion. Right, right, right. Yeah, here, here, now. They're fighting from the bottom. Yeah, okay, yeah. All right. So despite that,

that makes sense. Despite that, they also said in their platform, quote, our goal is to ensure that women with problem pregnancies have the kind of support, material and otherwise, they need for themselves and for their babies, not to be punitive toward those for whose difficult situation we have only compassion. We oppose abortion, but our pro-life agenda does not include punitive action against women who have an abortion. Okay. So... Okay. Who have an abortion? Okay, so Okay, I just remember in 2016 somebody saying like well. She has an abortion. She should feel some pain Yeah, well yeah and and somebody asking a certain candidate, you know do you think there should be a

Punishment for the woman and well yeah, yeah there there needs to be there. Yeah, there should be a punishment for the woman and well yeah, yeah there there needs to be there Yeah, there should be a punishment. Mm-hmm. You know like desperately not Like like having to do the calculation in his head About about which which way is gonna be Which way is gonna be more more politically profitable? Or I come down which which how real can I get here? Okay, fair So yeah now so in 96 they're showing they literally have the word compassion in there And they're like we're not here to punish women who've had abortions. We're just trying to restrict it

Which was still way too fucking much for me, yeah they're pushing that like hey Bob Dole is all about that compassion shit right right right except you know all this stuff I just read um the thing is this is this is nowadays now that I'm feeling much better and I'm not part of that, that, uh, sect anymore. Um, just to say Republican, um, you know, the, the argument that the 14th amendment has to apply to unborn children. Like the moment you say that you are giving up reasonableness. Yes. Like completely it's going out the window. You can,

you can catch the tone of, well, you know, uh, this is all about, you know, compassion and this, that, and the other, and this really isn't that extreme. No, I'm sorry. Uh, the moment you try to argue that unborn people have rights under the 14th amendment of the constitution, you have gone full whack job because that is opening the door for all kinds of heinous shit. Oh yeah. And, and remember everybody,

I'm the one that gets pointed out all the time as being the Catholic You are so Like you know I'm just saying um That's nuts now. I would say as nuts as that is yeah, I long for that Because now they're like well just because someone's born here doesn't mean they get to be a citizen. And it's like, no, that's literally what that amendment says. Literally. Yeah, this is true. No, we need to reinterpret that because because if their parents weren't here, so they're like reaching up into the womb.

Like in the fucking Brett Kavanaugh. Yeah. Like, so that's that's the so we went from, you know, like, hey, we want to be compassionate to women who've had this but also the 14th amendment Absolutely applies to the unborn to we want to punish women and that 14th amendment doesn't apply to anybody Yeah, it's like yeah fuck 14. Yeah like Are you yeah? Yeah, it's yeah every every Policy statement that you that you put forward in this in this segment at the time You know liberals people who were who were

Centrist or left-of-center looked at all of this was like oh my god look look at how conservative look at how You know Reactionary this all is and now we're looking at it like god damn it I wish our reactionaries were this like logical and reasonable and and yeah woman. Yeah It just it's just more and more proof of how fucking weird they've gotten. You know, so anyway. So then after saying all that nice things about, you know, being compassionate, they then did the red meat baiting bullshit of saying that Clinton quote,

vetoed the ban on partial birth abortions, a procedure denounced by a committee of the American Medical Association and rightly branded as four fifths infanticide. We applaud Bob Dole's commitment to revoke the Clinton executive orders concerning abortion and to sign into law and end to the partial birth abortions. So then they say, quote, later on they say, say quote abstinence education in the home will lead to less need for birth control services with fewer abortions. We support educational initiatives. I'm glad you hit mute before you start hitting your head. We say I didn't actually I'm not sick. I'm just not successfully thumping my head against the microphone hard enough. We support educational initiatives to promote chastity until marriage as the expected standard of behavior.

Yeah, they weren't going to moralize at all. This education initiative is the best preventative measure to avoid the emotional trauma of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies that are serious problems amongst our young people. sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies that are serious problems amongst our young people. While recognizing that something must be done to help children when parental consent or supervision is not possible, we oppose school-based clinics which provide referrals, counseling, and am not thrilled with the idea that all of these healthcare things for young people get handled by the schools. I don't, I don't like the fact that that's essentially an unfunded mandate on the institution that you and I work for. So there's a part of what's in here that I kind of agree with, but everything else about this is just so fucking wrong. Well, you don't agree with it for their reasons. You agree with it for a very different reason.

Different reason, yeah. Because it's an infrastructural reason for you. Not, it's a, you've already stretched us incredibly thin. You've already made it. Yeah. You've already made it so, uh, like even in 1996 and it's only gotten worse Uh, like even in 1996 and it's only gotten worse since then, even in 1996, there were significant swaths of the country where high schools, uh,

we're not able to afford full-time nursing staff. Right. I mean now, nowadays you're, you're, if you're, if you're not a high school, you're lucky to have a full-time nurse ever anywhere, right? You know, we don't have one I don't know. I don't know about your site, but the one I'm working out. We don't have one. We have one with an assistant Union strong, baby. We have been It's just it's just anyway, you know, but like And it's just, it's just anyway, but you know, but like, um, it's, it's, yeah, it's ridiculous. Like I'm listing all of that, like no abstinence education. Even in 1996, there was plenty of evidence that abstinence only education was worth jack

shit. Yeah. and it's only education was worth jack shit. Yeah, you know You know leaving leaving young people in a Bridgerton like state of ignorance of the way reproduction works It does not does not accomplish anything, right? Yeah, so yeah, I, I. Well, you're going to love this part because they also didn't leave out Jesus. Quote, we will continue to work for the return of voluntary prayer to our schools and will strongly enforce the Republican legislation that guarantees equal access to school facilities by student religious groups.

We encourage state legislatures to pass statutes which prohibit local school boards from adopting policies of denial regarding voluntary school prayer. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I attended high school and I graduated from high school in 1993 in California. And there was a Christian club on campus mm-hmm that was officially recognized by The campus ASB yeah, we did too. They're fucking nuts. They're well. Yeah, but either way they got to exist They got to be there, and you know what um if if there had been enough students at my school who were willing to speak up about being Buddhist or Hindu or, uh, you know, Muslim or Jewish, they could have had an organization too. That's, that's kind of

the whole point is, is, you know, it's a, it's a voluntary thing. The issue has never been kids being allowed to pray in school. It's about, um, kids being required to pray, having, having a sports coach say, all right, uh, everybody, everybody take a knee in Jesus name and Jesus name God. Yeah in Jesus name Like okay. No, that's not acceptable, right? Because so what they're pointing to is they're saying that when schools would spend like, you know You get five minutes and the schools would say you have five minutes You may now pray

That's voluntary Yes, but what you're doing is you're mandating a space of time five minutes, you may now pray. That's voluntary. Yes. But what you're doing is you're mandating a space of time so that a group can do a voluntary thing that they want. Like it's verbal gymnastics. Yeah, well yeah. By putting that time into the daily agenda, you are endorsing it.

You are not simply 100%. Allowing voluntary prayer. You are giving us no 100% Yeah, yeah, yeah, no 100%. You know, um, and, and yeah, like, and I mean, and after a certain point, it comes down to verbal gymnastics either way. Like if it's a, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna start every day with five minutes of contemplation. And if you're not Christian, how they got around it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, and, and I don't know, that's, that's enough. That right there is enough of a gray area that I'm like, okay, I don't know.

It would depend on the way admin was, was characterizing it to me. Yeah. But you know, I would believe her. I mean, it is it is a. It's a wink and a nod at the camera. All right. Five minutes contemplation because of what it previously had been. Like, all right. Yeah. All right.

You know, having, having never been in an environment where we had a five minutes of prayer at the start of the day, you know, if they said five minutes of prayer at the start of the light You know if they said five minutes of alone time Yeah, I got to jerk off There you go cool. Yeah, okay fine. You know and you know what that might actually be it would have been more productive than me more conducive well I would suffer the little children. And you know, it is worth noting that the sin of Onan is not what everybody thinks it was. Right.

Right. That being, being beside the point, I had the wife, the, the, you know, giving, giving certainly really self-owning wasn't he yeah very much And not the ruler of his own domain But you know I think I think there might be positive classroom management outcomes if you just gave students Ten minutes to know if they need to go to the

bathroom to do that. I mean, they have that at West Point. It's called the spank wall in the shower. So I didn't and nothing bad has ever come out of West Point. So never. So anyway, most Republicans at that time had the voters had been whipped up by Newt Gingrich for two years thinking that Hillary Clinton was a demon for all the wrong reasons. And they were whipped up into thinking that they wanted a Scarlet Letter return. And even as abhorrent as this platform is to me,

it still wasn't enough to motivate Republican voters and swing voters to switch sides again. Now, oddly, this platform isn't too different from Pat Buchanan's speech in 1992 at the RNC, which was in... Oh, Lord. Uh, I... He talked about it...

He talked about the Republican, or he talked about the Democrat one being up in New York. News Iowa, wasn't it? I don't remember. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Here's what Pat Buchanan said in 1992 at the RNC. I want to say it was in Georgia or Florida. Anyway, he said, quote, the agenda Clinton and Clinton would impose on America, abortion on demand, litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units, that's change alright, but it's not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants, and it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation

we still call God's country. Now, I love what he does here for a couple reasons. Number one, it's very poetic at the end. It's not, it's not, it's not. So you've got that almost polysyndeton kind of approach. Also the fact that he is emasculating Bill Clinton and demonizing Hillary Clinton by saying that they are both going to impose something on America The agenda Clinton and Clinton would impose. Oh Yeah, like there's only one of them was president. Yeah, but and then and then he lists things that I'm like totally down for

Yeah, gay rights Abortion on demand. Yes, please. Yeah, fuck. I got to get a Vasectomy right away Yeah, you know, um And what is that if not the most proactive of abortions because if life begins at conception Then I am just murdering children left right and center every single time I fill up a washcloth like well you would be anyway if you're filling up a washcloth like come on

exactly oh so yeah I just you know but now that I'm out of a sex to me I have preemptively done all those murders you okay got him out of the way yeah so but anyway the Republican platform was pro NAFTA, something that Buchanan was staunchly against. Quote, we should, this is Buchanan, we should vigorously, no, no, this was, I'm sorry, the Republican platform. We should vigorously implement the North American Free Trade Agreement while carefully monitoring its progress to guarantee that its promised benefits and protections are realized by all American workers and consumers.

The Republicans themselves couldn't really answer to the economic success of the Clinton administration, hence all of the signs that were outside of the convention. So they also couldn't say that he was soft on crime or soft on welfare, which really meant that they couldn't whip up racists who were afraid of being replaced by not white folks. The only thing the Republicans could hang their hat on was abortion rights and gay rights. And I think the complexities of NAFTA and the optics of NAFTA are part of what lowered Republican voting rolls that year. People felt like they were getting screwed by it, but the economy was doing better

in the news and all the numbers that indicate good economic success for everyone was actually pointing that way. So imagine being frustrated that your side isn't in charge when the good shit's happening. And imagine doing everything that they told you to do and losing and then seeing people succeed more because of your defeat. And I'm going to say that again, because what is going to happen in wrestling? Imagine being frustrated that your side isn't in charge when the good shit is happening. And imagine doing everything that they told you to do and losing and then seeing

people succeed more because of your defeat. Now Bob Dole's popularity actually went down from 1994 when the Republicans won the House and Senate all the way to 95 when their control was clear and firm. And that means that there's two things at play that actually will relate back to Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Okay. Now you look like you had something you're going to tell me. No, just I had I had forgotten about that, that particular shift in

Dole's popularity, which makes sense. Uh huh. Yeah. And and I mean, this all again comes back to the the Republican sense since Reagan. Yeah.

That like we own the presidency and anytime a Democrat is in power, it's somehow an interloper. Yeah. Yeah. Even before, even before Trump like overtly started questioning legitimacy of the electoral process. Right. There was this like

he was a Rosa. He was criticizing the Americaness of the very American president who was black. Yeah. Like prior to that, there was this entitlement that they couldn't really explain. Yeah. After that, this was racism. It was. Yeah. So like over eight and yeah

Yeah, and and and you know this this idea that that somehow on some level a Democrat in the White House was just illegitimate Then a black like because like it ought to be ours and yeah, and then and then a black Democrat it ought to be ours You know, yeah., God. Yeah. Yeah. So Bob Dole did everything that a candidate should do during this election. He had a legislative record, which was free and and and it was long. A lot of compromise, a lot of showing, hey, I can get shit done. Yeah, I know these people, they're friends from work, you know, like, yeah, yeah.

The whole four thing. Yeah. He was a freaking war hero. He was a purple heart recipient. He appealed to moderates while still maintaining conservative Republican ties. He was a midwesterner. He was endorsed by the last four Republican presidents. He did everything right, but there was still a segment of conservatives and rightists who simply didn't believe in him. I mean, they liked him, sure.

They ran with him as their near unanimous candidate But ultimately he failed to connect with them on a level that drove them away from him He failed to get them to believe in him. Yeah, he was Shawn Michaels Okay, and then you have Pat Buchanan who wasn't the avatar of this discontent nor was new Gingrich But the sentiment was absolutely there and it led to many Republicans Engaging their frustration more than anything of all their emotions It was that one and they damn sure weren't going to vote for Clinton because Gingrich and Buchanan had done such a good job of polarizing folks from 92 forward Gingrich and Buchanan had done such a good job of polarizing folks from 92 forward. But also the Republicans had led two shutdowns of the government and took the blame for it,

which meant impotent frustration ultimately. But they essentially disqualified themselves. So they vented their frustrations by staying home. Had they backed Bob Dole fully, the loss of Per parole votes couldn't have won him the popular vote Instead they stayed home That's the stone-cold Steve Austin frustration I'm sorry the loss of parole votes alone could have won him the popular vote, right? Right. Sorry And it would turn up again

Right, right. Sorry And it would turn up again Nurse through four more years of that goddamn successful guy in the White House who was doing great things for them despite their hatred of him They nurtured their frustration until it turned into a cultural rage and in the election of 2000 that would come to a boiling point More on that later But I want to get back to the important stuff. On September 1st, 1996, Brian Pillman interviewed his buddy Steve Austin, who cut a heel promo on Mark Marrow, calling Mark Marrow, quote, a piece of trash, same as his old lady. Oh, shit, like there's whoa and now that's southern rasslin shit

That's me Texas territory. That's yeah, there's there's some Florida territory going on there But yeah, and then he went in hard on Brett Brian Pillman had been a tag team partner of Steve Austin and WCW Okay, so Brian Pillman he's come to WWF. He's this wild card. He's this loose cannon. That's what they had him. And then he gets in a fucking accident. And so he's just relegated to interviews and he's actually really good friends with Steve Austin. And they had been a tag team called the Hollywood Blondes. Okay. They got over by being nasty heel tag team. Okay. and that was heavily alluded to, which was itself a new thing in the WWF because normally they never talked about the competition,

but they're talking about how these guys used to be friends. They used to go down the road together, etc. Pillman had been also a longtime friend to the Hart family because he'd gotten one of his first major starts in stampede wrestling up in Calgary a long time ago. That was also alluded to. So Brian Pillman is both old friends with Steve Austin and giving him a platform, but also good friends and an admirer of Bret Hart. So Austin calls Mark Mero a piece of trash same as his old lady and then says, quote, looking beyond me being the next Intercontinental Champion, I'd like to take this chance to get something off my mind that's been eating at me for a long time. I'd like to use this chance to issue a challenge against one Brett the Hitman Hart.

And he spits out Hitman's name. The crowd goes apeshit, and he shouted to the crowd to shut up And then he quote he he's mocking brent he says i am the best there is i'm the best there was and i'm the best there ever will be and that 100 immediately drew boos from the crowd So they cheered him. He's like i'm a fucking a fucking heel. You all shut the fuck up, and then I quote your hero in a mocking way. Now everybody is hates him. Wow, all right. Super heel.

Now remember, the TV American audience hadn't seen Bret Hart since WrestleMania, so we're talking about more than five months at this point. March, April, May, June, July, right? This is August. At this, Brian Pillman interrupted Steve Austin incredulously, basically asking if Steve Austin had bit off more than he could chew, since Bret Hart was one of the greatest legends of all time. Now again, look at how they're setting things up. Bret is acknowledged as the greatest. Sean

wasn't even a blip on the radar for this. And Austin was growing in popularity and reputation with the fans. They hated him, but he was definitely getting a huge push as a heel up and comer. And he says in response, I know exactly who I'm talking about, son. And then the We Want Brett chants nearly drown out the interview and listening to it, it's definitely kids voices that are doing it, too. And then the We Want Brett chants nearly drown out the interview and listening to it. It's definitely kids voices that are doing it too. Austin looked around angry and then he got a wry smile across his face and turned on his

longtime friend to say, as far as you's cutting me off, I'll knock your head off just as soon as I would the hit man's. Wow. So there are no friends here, you know. Then he turned right to the camera, looked right in it and said, Brett, you used to wear the pink and the black. In Stone Cold's book, pink stands for you know what. I'm the best there is. And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.

And then he got really intense, stormed the turnbuckles and raised up two fists. No middle fingers yet. And I think that's where I want to stop us for this one. Because we're gonna get to the Championship Friday Raw. Because sometimes they would move Raw to a different night when they would get preempted and stuff. So that'll take us to September of 96 and

Okay, so What are you thinking so far? The the undercurrent of frustration Across across both parallel timelines is and, and, and between WCW and, and WWF and, and the fact that the NWO storyline has now started up and, and gotten the heat that it's getting. Yeah. So, in WCW you have, by the way, again, just to review from episodes from over 100 episodes ago now, you have a force that took over when it shouldn't have.

It has now corrupted everything and we're looking to the skies for a savior with a very white face Could someone please save us we are unable to save ourselves right in WWF You have a guy who's super frustrated and attacking a guy who is the acknowledged Best there is the best there was right and they're kind of largely losing sight of the guy that they should be cheering So yeah, they start to focus on this frustrated guy. So sorry go on Yeah, well and and and the thing that gets me about it is Everybody was swimming in this emotional stew

To the extent that they that they't, that they didn't notice it. It was like the way that it had polluted the water around them was gradual enough that they, they didn't even see it. You know what I mean? And, and what you've said repeatedly has really has continued to come up in my head is they don't know that they've, that they've caught lightning in a bottle yet. Yeah. You know, and they don't, and they don't understand what exactly it is That's going to catalyze that But you know, yeah, I would say that that's true over in WCW. I think

Vince was trusting his talent Stone Cold Steve Austin To run with something and seeing if it would stick whereas yeah WCW was Let's keep throwing this and see why it's sticking and there's two different things going on there, but yeah No, yeah, yeah, the certainly all didn't know how white hot shit would get yeah time Yeah, yeah, and and there's differences in the mechanic behind it for sure and I and I think your Your analogy of you know, how how the two organizations were handling it is spot-on

I do have a question though Stone-cold Going after Brett Hart. Mm-hmm in that promo. Yeah Do you think that was a hey? Here's who we need you to point this at or do you think that was? Austin Doing that on his own It's actually a third option. So Brett knew that he wanted to come back to the WWF

I don't get also knew that he wanted to work with Steve Austin oh Okay, so they're trying to get him to sign and one way to do that is to feed him the guy He wants to work with okay, so I think they were acting in good faith I had no reason to think that he wouldn't sign, but it's come on Brett we really want you on board well did you please yeah and he really didn't play and he he was very loyal to Vince at that time and he told Vince like I don't want to go to WCW and Vince was like they wouldn't know what to do with you man like they really wouldn't and evidence has borne that out um but it's also kind of a failed experiment on both ends, like too many variables. But Vince knew that, Brett knew that,

Brett didn't want to go to, the only other time he tried to go to WCW, because he was frustrated with his run heading toward the Intercontinental title, and he kind of flubbed being able to switch. At that point he might have, because he saw more money there. But this time he's like I really want to come back to work for WWF There's so many good storylines that we have yet to do There's the one with Sean and also yeah, we want to work with Steve Austin. He's good

and and So I think this was a way of WWF sweetening the pot form like look, okay We're building toward a feud now if Brett never showed up Austin could still build himself going like see I scared him away. I kept him away Oh, yeah, and and continue with the nasty heel shit kind of talk Yeah, but the plan was absolutely to to have bread. Okay back. All right. Yeah so but just the persona of

Steve Austin, mm-hmm You know and and we're still in a place where he's he's gaining all of the heat that he's gaining and nobody Nobody understands that he's going to wind up being the one to get catapulted into the stratosphere by the whole thing right they know he's gonna get over yeah he's gonna be a top guy but he's not they didn't nobody knew he was gonna be the guy yeah yeah again remember earlier that year like two months earlier three months earlier. They had just found the Austin 316 shirts

Yeah, you know Yeah, so Yeah, no, it's it's I mean we always wind up in these situations We're like, you know people who are living through these events didn't didn't comprehend them Right as they were happening And this is just one of those one of those moments where you're like how do you not see this yeah? You know? So that's that's my that's probably my big takeaway at this point Okay, cool. Yeah um

What are you suggesting for folks to read? I'm gonna let you go first on this because I look up an author's name real absolutely I actually um I'm not gonna date this exactly although. We've we've kind of dated it if you read the tea leaves But a book that came up in interest to me again that I loved with the first time I read it about 18 years old now It's called banker to the poor the story of the Grumian Bank by Muhammad Yunus. He's been in the news lately. Yeah, that's what's happening in Bangladesh. So that kind of dates it, but it was one of my favorite books

back then. And it was something that my wife at the time and I read to each other chapter by chapter. So she would be knitting scarves for people for Christmas and I would read a chapter And then her hands would get tired and she'd take over and I would play a video game while she'd read a chapter Cool. It was right. Yeah, but it's a great book and it's all about micro loans A thing I've been a huge fan of since about 1999 When I first learned about them, they're phenomenal and it was a way of essentially like using capitalism on a much smaller scale to lift people out of poverty and it actually

probably hewed closer to The optimism that Smith had about capitalism Than anything we've done. So had it not been for the deregulation and the housing market crash It was possible. It was a conceptual possibility that Muhammad Yunus would have been right and we would have had museums of poverty by 2030. But now this is better. I wish.

So it's called Banker to the Poor, the story of the Grameen Bank. Go read it. It's very cool. What I'm going to recommend as kind of pre homework for what I'm going to be talking about next is another manga series because I've already recommended at least one. And this is Samurai Executioner written by Kazuo Koike. And I am anglicizing the pronunciation of his name. But it is a brilliantly drawn, very engaging action adventure series that takes place during the Edo period in Japan. And it is way over the top. It is like Chanbara, Ato Wazoo, sword fights and craziness. Um, but there are a whole lot of wonderful social details that are written

into the plot lines that really paint a very vivid picture of what Edo society looked like and who the people in that society were and what the pressures were on them and the interplay between different strata of society. I mean, yeah. So it is beautiful to look at, it is very entertaining to read, and it is actually a very good secondary source for learning about the culture of Tokugawa era Japan. So I'm very strongly recommending that. Go out and you can find it. I'm sure you can find it in any number of bookstores since nowadays. They all have extensive manga

sections So again, it's samurai executioner by Kazuo Koike Cool well is there anywhere we can be found as you remain a shadow in the warp Yes, we collectively can be found on our website at www.geekhistorytime.com Where you can find the full catalog of our episodes published so far and we are also Findable on the Apple podcast app the Amazon podcast app and on Spotify

Wherever it is that you have found us Please take the time to give us a five-star review that you know we deserve and hit the subscribe button If you do go to our archives in any one of those places or go look through back episodes Find whatever subjects you're interested in give them a listen We have a little bit of everything and a lot of a few things to be found there. So how about you? Where can you be found? Let's see, you can find me and Capital Punishment slinging puns at the Sacramento Comedy Spot on the first Friday of every month.

If you go to saccomedyspot.com forward slash calendars, you can find a way to book our show. That is to get a ticket. You can either get a ticket electronically, so you can watch it streaming if you do not live in the greater Sacramento area, or you can come see us live. The show is on, let's see, by the time this drops, November 1st has probably already happened.

So December 6th, January 3rd, and February 7th. But again, first Friday of every month. So go on and, I mean, honestly, if you live far away, get 30 bucks and buy five months worth of shows in advance. If you live close by, get 36 bucks and buy three days or three weeks, three months worth of shows. It goes to a good cause. That is me buying presents for my children. And also me paying a whole bunch of comedians to do cool shit. So anyway, that's Capital Punishment at the Sacramento Comedy Spot. First Friday of every month at 9pm.

It's very cool. Cool. Well, for Geek History of Time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blalock. And until next time, that's the bottom line.