A Geek History of Time - Episode 293 - The Fall of the Hitman and the Rise of the Rattlesnake Part IV

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

We were saying that we were going to get into the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them because there were way too goddamn many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story arc. Where should I be? Oh, there's Beast. I should step over here. At some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you, like, and force you, like, pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look. And are swiftly and brutally put down by the Minutemen who use bayonets to get their point across.

Well done there. and are swiftly and brutally put down by the minutemen who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good, Damian, and I'm also glad that I got your name right this time. I apologize for that one tick tock video. Men of this generation. Wound up serving the whole lot of them as a percentage of the population because of the war, because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh, yeah. And actually, in his case, it was pre-war, but, but, you know, I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. I'm going to go to the bathroom. This is a Geek History of Time.

Where we connect your degree 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'm also the father of a six-year-old who had his first soccer tournament today. It was a seeding tournament, meaning all of the teams in their little youth level played against each other in a round-robin kind of thing and to determine who's at what level. And I got there just in time to watch one of the higher level slightly older slightly bigger

Teams in the in the group as it were Just raffle stop my son's team One and eight The this we didn't even score the second the second period ended early because Skunk everybody are of the four players on the field three of them from my son's team were crying It was it was it was not it was bad But then the very last game They were better matched against the against the last team that they played against and they they played

Hard and they did a great job and i'm very very proud of my little boy. He did he did awesome. So So that was that was my first sports parent experience, uh So yeah, how about you? How are you doing? Well, i'm damien Harmony. I'm a US history teacher up here in Northern, California I am dating this a little although the fact that you mentioned your son's age and the fact that they're playing soccer Firmly places this in essentially fall winter So I will say I had my my son's first back-to-school night as a freshman in high school Now he does not go to the high school that I teach at. That was the original plan. That plan has since changed, which is fine. Things happen.

People retire. I will say that. Okay. That being said, I am so glad that he went to that place instead of the one where I work at. I love the work that I do. I love a lot of the colleagues that I have. I think we do terrific work. But I can say unequivocally now that we do that good work despite everything, not because of everything. And having gone to my son's high school, I walked into what is known as the math building because all of math is housed there. We don't have anything like that because we never rejiggered things after the failed experiment that anybody with experience

could have told them would have failed of small learning communities. So now you've got English next to math, next to history, next to foreign language, which has its own charm, but you do not have this building is where we do this thing. This floor is where we do this thing. Nothing like that, right? Walking up the stairs in the math building, they painted pie all the way up. Walking down the halls, there are geometric patterns, there are diagrams of things, there are quotes by mathematicians. You are in a place where learning happens. You are in a school. And I realized the stark difference was

my son goes to a school, I teach in an educational institution. And I mean, we have a kind of paint that is beige. And I mean the kind of beige that that Werner Herzog would use to describe sad, suburban children. The sad beige baby Concerns drinking his sad beige milk Waits for the Sun, which is a kind of beige Like it's that kind of a sad beige and it's that kind of a sad beige specifically To keep paint from being able to stick to it in case there's graffiti

Yeah, so we have institutional protection against graffiti, which at some point was likely necessary, but it distinctly smells like and feels like an institution where you house children, not an institution where learning gets to take place. That's incidental. Wow. Not an institution where learning gets to take place like that's incidental Wow And I didn't realize how how washed out the color palette of my professional life had become and how much bold I add to it and

Why people might object to how much bold I add to it but I did not realize all that until I went to my son's high school and You are you are the bright bright purple Accent wall. I am a in old color. I am not a bright color I didn't say what shade of purple but it's a bright purple purple so okay all right all right you you you are the you are You're very very powerful. I'm the star bull gray You ain't you ain't good there is hunter green maybe okay, all right you know all right fine

Yes, you know but but you you are the you are the the one the the one facet of the environment that suddenly leaps out at somebody. That is not sad and beige. Yeah. Angry and verdant. You know what, maybe it's crimson. Maybe your color is crimson. You're the bright red wall. There you go. Yeah. Yeah

So anyway, um Talk about contrast. Yeah. So anyway last time we spoke Yeah, Brian Pillman said when Austin 316 meets Pillman's 9-millimeter Glock. I'm gonna blast his ass straight to hell And then the night was the election. Oh, fuck. Yeah. And yeah. Just okay.

That's so on the night of November 5th. That's a hell of a statement in time right there. No kidding. Like wow. All right. On the night of November 5th, 1996, a hell of a statement in time right there. No kidding. Like, wow, alright. On the night of November 5th, 1996, Bob Dole conceded the race to Bill Clinton, and amid his speech, he had to battle the crowd a little bit to be gracious, and I will say this is

my bias here, patriotic. Quote, let me say, this is Bob Dole talking, let me say that I talked to President Clinton, we had a good visit and I congratulated him. And I said, no, no, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I've said repeatedly. I've said repeatedly. Wait. I've said repeatedly. I have said repeatedly in this campaign that the president was my opponent, not my enemy, and I wish him well and I pledge my support in And I wish him well and I pledge my support in Whatever advances the cause of a better America because that's what the race was about in the first place a better America as we go into the next century

Yep, it is something to point out that he had to fight his own supporters to To graciously lose. Yes. In 1996. Yeah. And that is, that is the, that is the root of, of everything we have seen since on, on the right. That is

because we have seen since on on the right that is Because The leadership at various times When we talk about leadership, you know talking specifically about you know presidential candidates Have It's it's been relatively recent at the top of the ticket for the agreement and the entitlement and the sense of ownership to be overt. Yes. You know, the, the W when, when W left the white house, when W lost the election he conceded and and

McCain when McCain lost McCain conceded and They had to continue Just like Dole did they had to continue fighting with their own Supporters to maintain that graciousness. Yes. And this is, I think this is the defining, I think you have nailed the defining moment of when we can look at it and say, no, no, that's where this started.

Yeah, this is Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own. Everybody thinks that Tom Hanks in Philadelphia is what really set him up as a serious actor. It was Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own that set him up as a serious actor. His ability to inhabit that character got him Philadelphia. Okay. So anyway, Dole also said,

and I would say to the young people and all the others involved, it's a lot more fun winning. It hurts to lose an election, but stay involved and keep fighting the good fight because you are the ones who will make the 21st century the next American century. And I, and I don't want anybody, I don't want anybody to pass out here But I also want to thank all the media who traveled with me on the plane They and all my friends. No, no, no, come on. No, no, come on all my friends and We have many friends in the media and they were they were there every day every night every day and every night as we flew around this country. And we met hundreds and thousands and thousands of good people

all across America who want a better America and will continue working for a better America. Now, he's also defending the media. He's being gracious to the Fifth Estate. He's being gracious to one of the only institutions that's actually protected by the constitution in the first amendment. Yeah. Now there was, yeah, because he's operating from a political paradigm

that was still, uh, rooted in the idea of, uh, they are, they are not the enemy they are the loyal opposition yes and and ultimately we're never gonna get everything we want we have to we have to work together right and we recognize that we all we are all looking to achieve the same goals though our our methods differ. Like, all of that was the norm. The, you know, established understanding of how partisanship was supposed to work. Now, having said that, you remember last episode,

I read to you their plank, their platform, and like the first bit of it was no actual positive stance, just that Clinton is ruining the country and not just Clinton, the Clintons, right? So he's kind of getting it both ways here. He is getting to be gracious having been the leader of a party that set as its mission statement, the Clintons are bad for America, and they are bad people, and they're cronyism,

and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, no, you're 100%. And pushing a far right agenda, quite honestly, is much more conservative than the language he used. Yes. So, now there was a segment that refused to accept that this was the result. They refused to accept that they'd been beaten and they wanted to see Clinton as the enemy because how dare he run a better campaign and win by being more successful in

other words How dare how dare he be more popular, right? Yeah, in other words win lose or draw. I'm always gonna be on your ass Fuck okay. Yeah Right. In other words, win, lose or draw, I'm always going to be on your ass. Fuck. Okay. Yeah. That segment did not go away. It found fuel. It found Pat Buchanan, Karl Rove, Fox pundits, anyone who would tell them that they were right to be angry about Bill Clinton. Rush Limbaugh. Any scrap that they could cling to, any dress they could point to, and that they hadn't actually lost even though they'd been beaten. It didn't matter what the rules are.

What mattered was that they felt legitimately aggrieved, win, lose, or draw. Those people would grow and, again, my bias here, they would metastasize into something that no longer cared about the rules The kind of people who would cheer Austin slamming someone's head in a car door or drowning him in a kiddie pool Before storming into a former friend's house regardless of the gun the fucking night before Yeah Now it didn't matter that the it didn't matter the facts that according to Rutgers professor

David Greenberg, he's an expert on both media communications and history at the time. He said, quote, by the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive besides the record high surpluses and the record low poverty rates.

The economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history, the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s, and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged. They did not care. They were mad that they lost and they refused to accept it, and this meant that they're damn sure not gonna accept it a third time in a row. Okay, yes. Now, it would be easy to red meat

bait them, by the way, because there had been gun bans, specifically the assault rifles ban. There had been an increase in gay people's rights and an increase in abortion access under Clinton. I mean, that's your holy trinity right there for whooping up the base

that's mad at undeniable economic success. Yeah. And instead of retooling and pointing out that the people left behind by the staggering economic successes were the most marginalized and specifically speaking to those people, the Republican Party went culture war extreme. So while they could have grabbed votes by advocating for a less hawkish intervention strategy and social welfare programs that started with the poor

instead of deregulating the banks, which is what Clinton had done. That's not who was paying for their conferences. So the culture war it had to be. Yeah. Well, and, and within Republicanism, by this time, I mean, the real distinction, when you, when you really look at it, if you scratch the surface of the Republican Party, what you really actually see is the yacht club. Like the people whose interests are really being looked out for. And so no, of course they're not going to reach out to people on the literal opposite end of the privilege spectrum because those people, like you say, can't pay for their

conferences. Those people aren't the ones of funding most of their campaigns, you know, by, by dollar volume. Um, and, but, but they are going to pander to a subsector of the working class and a subsector, because there aren't that many people with yachts, so you've got to get votes somewhere. But those votes aren't the majority either. Yeah, no. So they're pandering and specifically setting up for a plan of minority rule.

I mean, that's really what that is. Well, yeah. Yeah, when you play your bass and your bass is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, because everybody else is actually on board with, no, okay, I didn't like it at first, but I'm actually getting paid well. Like, either you try to lie to them, which also happens,

or you appeal to the small segment of your base that is the loudest and the most threatening. Yes. And then you've got gendarmes. Yeah. And, and I had a thought and it got low. Neither of which is a democratic thing. No, well, yeah, no.

Yeah, no. Oh, and you, you, you figure out you, you get very Karl Rove about things and you figure out, okay, we need to split off this and split off this and split off this and we need to, because to hold onto the White House, right? Because that's the plum. That's what everybody is like, you know, because the White House is what gets us the judges, right? On the Supreme Court. To get to the White House, we don't, we don't need the popular vote. We need electoral votes and we can get those by convincing rural voters that, you know, those Brown people are coming after your jobs and

we need to stop them. And liberals want to take away your guns and force your sons to wear mascara and be gay. The reason why you're still left behind economically is not for the people who are giving me money for my campaign. It's those brown people down there that are four states away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So not only Roe, but Gingrich. And Gingrich doubled and tripled down on the things that kept giving clinton more approval actually But it also would deepen the disgust and frustration amongst Republicans conservatives and rightists and I distinguish between all three

Sometimes the there's a lot of overlap sometimes. Yeah Yeah, now it really helped that agenda that it was under the Clintons that are see I even do it not even meaning to But it was under Bill Clinton that Waco and the Murrah building had all happened Now what's interesting is that somehow people tied Clinton to Ruby Ridge? Despite the fact that Ruby Ridge happened on Bush's watch Well because we ridge despite the fact that Ruby Ridge happened on Bush's watch. Well, because they're on the right and both of them are seen as, um, incidents of, uh, federal law enforcement, uh, overreach and, um, you know, what have you.

And so it's very easy when you don't consciously pay attention to timelines. It's very easy to to equate the two, right? And either think they happen closer together in time than they did, or to to forget when one administration ended and the other one began. Well, and also because they're the same type of fecklessness on the part of the government, right? You've got federal way overreaction and then frankly, incompetence, right? So Ruby Rich, definite overreach killed most of the family. Ruby rich Definite overreach killed most of a family

The the Waco incident definite overreach and they had to retreat That's you know a sign of weakness look at these liberals, right? Right, and you've got the Murrah building blowing up Look at these liberals letting children get slaughtered like you can start to see this narrative by a right-wing accelerationist like Right and the thing that gets me about anybody anybody on on the right wanting to point to Oklahoma City I'm like dude that was one of yours Yeah, but they're not pointing to who did it they're pointing under whose watch it happened

Yes, because that fits their narrative of under Clinton, we were weak. Add to that the World Trade Center bombing, the first one, or World Trade Center bombing. Columbine happened. The Kenya and Tanzania embassies got bombed. The USS Cole got bombed. And you add all that and you've got a lot of room for people to deepen their stakes in hating that man who'd won twice just because he had more popular appeal and policies. And was more charismatic and had people who were genuine technocrats making reasonable economic decisions.

Yeah. And it was his technical skill at governing that kept him on top. How very dare he? Mm-hmm. Yeah, but again He is more successful because he is more skilled. He is more successful because what he is doing works better You keep adding a hatred of the most successful politician in Quite some time and you get to the concept of this ain't over this ain't over by a damn sight Anyway more on that on November 11th raw. Okay, so right the election happens six days earlier Okay, Austin wait a week, right?

Right Austin cut a promo saying how quickly he would beat Bob Holly his opponent that night now Bob Holly is a how quickly he would beat Bob Holly, his opponent that night. Now, Bob Holly is a mid-card guy. He was Bob Sparky Plug Holly. His gimmick was that he was a NASCAR racer. Okay. Austin also refused to apologize for the Pillman incident, remember,

going into his house, which only endeared him more to the fans. Quote, Brett Hart, I know you're watching and you better watch son because you're you better be prepared for Madison Square Garden because it is indeed the most important match of your life. Vince cut in to say I'll agree with that. This is absolutely wrestling puffery. Austin continued as though Vince had not interrupted. You're making the big comeback trying to please the people and trying to please your family and all and that's the things that'll get you in

trouble because Stone Cold doesn't have to take care of nobody but himself. Now your side just lost the election. Okay. Think of the image that you have of yourself now in 1996 november You're all alone. You have to take care of yourself because He continues to please the people And trying to you know, please all these families But you know, it's not going to fly with me son because I hated your guts and I didn't vote for you And i'm all alone and I got to take care of myself

your guts and I didn't vote for you and I'm all alone and I got to take care of myself. A guy who despite fucking people on welfare for minimal actual gain or impact on the government economically had a reputation for supporting ne'er-do-wells on the government teat. And he won? Republican values of taking care of yourself and letting everyone else take care of themselves lost? This Austin guy fucking knows what's up and I'm like him. He and I are the same. Right. Okay.

By the way, at this point, he's not flipping off the boss. He's not flipping anybody off and he's not chugging beers. Okay. He's still finding his feet of Stone cold Steve Austin. Now back to Austin. Quote, Brett you keep watching son because when I get through with Bob Holley, I ain't gonna wait for Madison Square Garden. People thought last week was bad son. I'll find your dressing room and we ain't gotta wait. So he's not gonna bother with the rules, the conventions, decorum, waiting for the actual date of the fight. He just wanted to fight and fight and fight and fight and it's the perpetual

struggle or as Umberto Eco said in or fascism, pacifism is trafficking with the enemy because life is permanent warfare. Okay. Yeah, there is, there is a, I'm going to say there's a toxic repurposing of the virtue of grit, the virtue of determination, virtue of never say die. Right. Has now been been corrupted. Yeah. Into this obsession. Yes. And single mindedness. Yeah. Yeah, it's

because as as you're talking about all of this, part of what's occurring to me is at the same time all of this anger and festering and everything is going on on the right. I feel like and I don't have anything like concrete to point to but I feel like this is also a point in our in yours in my lifetime. When we see the beginnings of today's toxic masculinity starting to show up as maybe not yet norms, but they're moving in the direction of being mainstreamed. Yeah, I would say, remember, wrestling is never mainstream.

It's a funhouse mirror of the mainstream. It's a funhouse mirror of the mainstream. Yeah. So if you're seeing this in wrestling to this grotesque extent, then you are seeing aspects of this in normal culture. Yeah. And I do say normal on purpose. So I would also say that this is merely one aspect of that toxic masculinity. And again, it's the grotesque expression of it, right? Yeah. So this idea of, I it, right? Yeah, yeah.

So this idea of, I mean, wrestling is literally a fight. So this is where the hyperviolent part lays out. And seeing the ways that they tell those stories absolutely can give us insight into what was becoming the norm in society. And what was becoming the norm in society is not accepting the fucking results. Yeah.

Anyway, given the selective populism that Republicans were getting into, who were led somewhat by the extremes in the culture war, folks, this seems appropriate to bring up here. Austin was absolutely contemptuous of anyone weak enough to get beat by him and disdainful of anyone who stood against him, hence his style. This was the popular elitist chauvinism that we saw with Mussolini.

He would also dip into the machismo of questioning Bret's sexuality by talking about his pink tights. And I will talk more on that in a minute. But you're seeing expressions of the masculinity in the machismo that was an undergirding of what fascism was in the 1920s. Okay. Now, Austin beat Holly as the final match of Raw, so main event.

He wrestled snug and vicious. Now when I say snug that means it does not look fake. When he's hitting a guy in the head with a working punch it's not supposed to hurt. Austin laid stuff in kind of hard so that it would look better. Okay. People who wrestled him knew that, and they knew that that was just his style, and there's some people who are light as a feather, and there's some people who hit really hard, and you just get used to it.

And Bob Holly is the type of wrestler who is a tough motherfucker, so he's not about to complain. Like, he got his neck broken by Brock Lesnar. Oh, another broken neck, my God. Yeah, it happens a lot in this profession, especially at that time. his neck broken by Brock Lesnar. Another broken neck. My God. It happens a lot in this profession.

But he got his neck broken by Brock Lesnar back in 2000. Well, not back in this time. We're talking about 96. But in like 2002 or four, he gets his neck broken by Brock Lesnar. It's in the mid 2000s.

And he comes back and he wrestles Brock Lesnar. It's in the mid 2000s. And he comes back and he wrestles Brock Lesnar and he goes hard on Brock Lesnar. Well yeah. Here's a man who literally can and will break your neck. Now this was accidental. I'm not saying Brock broke his neck on purpose. Well yeah of course. Yeah. Miscommunications happen all the time. But here's a man that is literally the most of time. But here's a man that is literally the most fighting machine man that there is who could turn any fight into a legitimate shoot where he destroys you. And Bob Holly wrestled snug against him. So there are some people who just wrestle snug. And so Austin wrestling Bob Holly snug makes perfect sense in some ways that might be why they got to be together and during this match

And by the way, he doesn't wrestle with very many heel shortcuts either Which is kind of a change right? He's not big when you would not okay when you talk about heel shortcuts, what kind of stuff are we? Begging off thumb in the eye Okay, low blows You know putting your head between the ring the ropes so that the ref has to break the hold shit like that Okay, all right fought out of most things he he took the blows and gave them back that kind of thing Okay, so he's so he's a heel but he's also legitimately like he's a badass kind of a face here Okay, ultimately he's certainly not wrestling like a heel like he had previously

He used to wrestle vicious, but then he'd beg off Now he's not doing that now during this match Brett was watching Stone Cold on a monitor backstage And it was just some of the most boring TV to watch a man watch a wrestling match but there you go. But it shows that Brett is keeping an eye on him and scouting, right? And they cut to a commercial

which featured a Survivor Series promo. Now I've put it in the chat and I'm gonna pause us here in a second. And I want you to watch this and then I will read the transcript to you after you're done watching it. And then I want your opinion specifically when it comes to visuals and tone of voice and

What have you all right? Okay, so we're back so Here's Austin. I'm gonna try with the inflection, but it's still gonna be Damien voice right so pink tights What the hell is that crap all about Brett this ain't no ballet class Sunglasses and sparklers what a load of crap so Brett you're coming back to continue a legacy Uh-uh Stone Cold's gonna make your comeback a living hell So you can start begging for some mercy right now you will beg for mercy. You're not gonna find it I think you're completely pathetic

You're the best there is was and ever will be whatever son you're looking at the best there is, was and ever will be. Whatever. Son, you're looking at the best there is. Austin 316 rules. I will kick your pink and black ass all over the garden. I'm going to end your legacy. You will beg for mercy at Madison Square Garden." And then it fades away and you see Survivor Series and you hear his music. Now, just real quick. I do want to point out I read it like a person reading it would they cut it together so that there's like a quarter of Like a time marker taken out between each line that he gives So it's yeah pink tight as before he even finishes saying tights He's on to the next phrase what the hell is that all about Brett and that cuts and it's there's, he's on to the next phrase. What the hell is that all about, Brett? And that cuts, and it's, there's this, he's interrupting himself kind of aspect

really adds to the heightening of it, and the you can't escape this kind of vibe. And I left out the part about, because there's another part about, you lost to the sexy boy, the boy toy. You, you. Yeah, the boy toy. I don't dance, you know, you lost to the sexy boy, the boy toy. Yeah, the boy toy. I don't dance, you know, and all that kind of stuff. Yeah.

That part was not part of the transcript that I was able to grab. Oh, really? But that's in there. Yeah, yeah. Because it was overlaid with the other shit he was saying. So anyway, tell me visually what you saw, how your reaction was to it at the end and all that kind of stuff. Um, I had, I had flashbacks to my, my first, uh, yeah, I had flashbacks to like, when

I was in junior college, um, because it was, it's like, it was so very nineties. Um, it was a very stark black and white Really really really high contrast between light and dark. Mm-hmm Like when he when he turns his head sideways, you know There's there's the very bright half and half in his face is just a completely black they keep cutting to barking dogs German shepherds, and I think at least one pit pull. Behind a fence.

Behind a fence, barely restrained. You can see this barking threat, but it's being held back by a very flimsy looking barrier. So there's that level of, oh hey, yeah, and we're going to send you this primal predator threat to deal with in your subconscious. I think it's very well put together. One of the things that struck me was it looked and sounded like a particular kind of political attack ad. You're right. That whole throwing... attack ad. You're right. You know that that whole you know throwing throwing lower taxes.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you know, he wants to send your kids to school. Yeah. Yeah. With adult immigrants. You know, it's like, yeah, like what? fuck? Yeah. But, um, it's, it's, it's a very similar kind of kind of vibe. Um, and again, you know, you talked about a minute ago, you talked about a particular kind of machismo being an underpinning of, of fascismophobic, I don't even want to say dog whistle because it's a foghorn. Yeah, he's not using slurs, but it's really clear that he's casting aspersions on his opponent's sexuality. Yeah, well, Brad Hart was known as the guy who wears pink tights.

Yeah. Like ever since he was part of the Hart Foundation in 1986, they switched to pink tights and that was a defining feature. And he embraced it and it was called the pink and black attack. You know, like it was very much and it was called the pink and black attack, you know Like it was very much it was very iconic and yeah, frankly for the late 80s early 90s pink was in Yeah, which is and it's also yeah and and on a on a guy it can be kind of a fuck you color

Like yeah, I'm wearing pink. What the hell are you gonna do about it? Well, so what I was gonna point out was when Steve Austin was in WCW, you know You got to go to the beach to get tanned. He would regularly wear a, because he's fucking buff, right? So he can get away with wearing a tank top and it doesn't look terrible. The regular tank tops back then often were pink. And he wore them on multiple occasions. But this is K-Fabe, so this is different.

Can you describe the actual set dressing, the setting where he was standing and talking? What was it? It's like the inside of a warehouse or an abandoned building. Yeah, there's junk. There's junk everywhere. It's it's somewhere between You know urban noir, you know urban jungle and like post-apocalypse So it conveys danger, right? Oh, yeah. No the setting everything everything about that video is designed to Reach out to the lizard center of the viewer's brain. Yeah, and and send subconscious or conscious threat signals.

Like it is uncomfortable. It really is. To watch it, you know, I mean it's brilliantly done. And it gets a message across really well, but like, is it, it's, it's entertaining, but is it fun? Fuck no. No. Not at all. Yeah. Yeah. Removable tail. What the hell is that? Gecko. Yeah. Yeah. Um, like, um, I'm reminded of, of, uh, there's a moment in remember the Titans, uh, where one of the kids says something to the coach about, you know, uh, football, you know, football's fun. Football's fun.

It's not fun anymore. You know, yeah. Well, what the fuck are we doing here? It's called the game, dude. Yeah. Like, yeah. You know, it's not fun anymore.

Is it? No, coach. No, it's not. Yeah. Like we're not, we're not here to have this this ain't no show boy Yeah, yes, it is the whole reason you're recording this thing is because why are there lights up then why? Why are we spotlight and why are there cameras everywhere if this is not paid money for this right? Yeah, okay then yeah Did we argue that it might be a show

then is that like I'm just saying yeah but but that was that was the vibe yeah was this isn't this isn't about this isn't about the sport this isn't about any of that this is the fact that I fucking hate you mm- And, and I have this urge to dominate you. Yes. Physically and to exert physical violence in order to, and he specifically references seven years of frustration. Yes. Specifically says seven years of frustration. I'm going to take it out on you. Like, you know, I think you buried the lead there by not Like I think maybe you need to open with that because that's that's what's that's what's really at the core of all of this

You know He's just he's just this angry angry angry Fucking dude, man. Yeah exactly that now now, thank you for that. Now, back to the match, it was pretty much a done deal. Austin went to the back and went to Brett's dressing room, but then he told the camera that they weren't going to get to see the fight for free. If they wanted to see the match of the decade, they'd have to buy the pay-per-view,

which, oh my God, right? So, like, so remember, he's cutting that promo, and then they cut to commercial, or they're in that match, then they cut to commercial during the match, which is a normal thing. The commercial is partly that, that opens the commercials, and then you get to the match, and it's when it finishes, then Austin goes to the back and he hunts down Brett. And again, he tells the people know the people like, you know The camera's not coming with me if you want to see the match of the decade by the pay-per-view Right and then he shouted that this Sunday would be the end of Bret Hart

Okay, this is such good promo work we know when we know where we know the stakes We know at like and and all the emotionality like that It's such good craftsmanship. Yeah now Bob Dole after the election All right, but opinion that now yeah segue back to Bob Dole the Republican Party couldn't win with a guy who thought this Right and and this being this quote, quote, people were urging me to be a hatchet man against Clinton for the next four years. I couldn't see the point.

Maybe after all those partisan fights, you look for more friendships. One of the nice things I've discovered is that when you're out of politics, you have more credibility with the other side, and you're out among all kinds of people. And that just doesn't happen often for an ex-president. He doesn't have the same freedom. So it hasn't been all bad.

Like he sounds completely concessionary. That's not, that's not what people want. That's not what Republicans want. And he knew this four nights before the election that he had no chance of winning. Hell, in April, in April of 96, Richard Nixon had told him specifically that Clinton would barrel forward to the White House again because of the economy. He almost seemed to run, Dole did,

almost seemed to run as the loyal opposition candidate more than anything else. And this led to voters staying home. In 1992, 39 million Americans voted for George H.W. Bush. Right. 19 million voted for Ross Perot. 44 million voted for Bill Clinton. Now if you're doing the math you might realize that Bill Clinton did not get an actual majority. No he did not. He did 49% Something like that, yeah.

Something like that, yeah. In 1996, Clinton got three million more votes, raising him to 47.5 million. Ross Perot lost 11 million votes, going from 19 down to 8 million. And Bob Dole ended up with 39 million again. Which means then... It's a big number. Yeah. But this also means that Clinton did not swing all the Republicans

Well, no, because he didn't he got three a little over 3.5 million more Rossboro lost a 11 million. Yeah, even if every one of those voted for Clinton. Yeah That still leaves seven and a half million unaccounted for completely well. Yeah, you know the thing is in In 92 right and and I mean this has been analyzed Eleven ways from Sunday. I think you're about to get ahead of me here Okay, all right. Yeah, like if I don't get there like let me know so okay, so mathematically Roe drops by more than, like, he drops 11 million. More than half the votes that he got.

But that 11 million didn't transfer over to Bob Dole. And Clinton's the only one that got a bump, and he only got 3.5 million bump. So that means, out of the 11 minus 3, that's 7.5 million people just didn't fucking vote. Now, it could be that a lot of Ross Perot voters went to Dole, but that only brought him up to HW numbers. Yeah. So, and one of the reasons that Bill Clinton didn't swing all the Republicans, there was no fucking way he could because Gingrich and Buchanan's

master class on demonization starting in the 1992 election. Even if every one of those 3 million people had been starting in the 1992 election. Even if every one of those three million people had been Republicans in the prior election, it does not account for Dole's static numbers and Perot's drop of more than triple what Clinton gained. The only real explanation is twofold. First, more Republicans, moderate Republicans, and liberal Republicans switched to Clinton. This is a fact. With liberal Republicans nearly tripling against Dole over Bush. Moderate Republicans going up by 25% in support of Clinton for the second term.

Yeah. The second aspect to this is that Republican voters, despite the conservatives and moderates, both going up in numbers for Dole by six and 9% over, over Bush. Yeah. Respectively. Ultimately, they just didn't turn out for Dole.

This sets the stage for what's to come. They were now apathetic and needed something to juice them up. And that would come in the form of attacking Clinton's philandering and refusing to concede the next time that they got to run. Right. Sure enough, there would be more Republican voters with this strategy, by the way. So did I, did I hit what you were going to say? Around the edges. Yeah. Okay. Part of what, part of what I was going to say was that a really big part of what

happened with Ross Perot in 92 was those, you know, conservative felt like they were betrayed, you know, read my lips, no new taxes coming back to bite Bush one in the ass. And they were, I mean, you remember, uh, the, the first time, the first time Perot ran the level of anger that motivated so many of the people who were voting for him and yes he was he was taking the right-leaning you know hardcore economic conservative wing Yeah under under his control and part of what happened was he dropped out of the 92 race or even Effectively dropped out of the race, but was still on ballots right and

After he did that or after having in, you know, after that election, his, his cache, his charisma, I'm using that term in a, in a different way than it normally gets used because he was never charismatic, but the, the aura that was associated with him disappeared. And so the guy that the Republicans ran was Bob Dole who you know seemed like a solid, you know, he was a middle of the road, you know, very moderate statesman like very moderate Republican. Yeah. And, you know, the guys at the top of the party, I wound up seeing a presentation. presentation my senior year of college, PJ O'Rourke showed up. He was on a speaking tour

promoting his newest book and he kind of dissected what had happened to Dole. And he said, you know, the guys that ran the party, he looked at Dole and they were like, yeah, we know this guy, he's one of us. This is our dude, you know? And the problem was for an awful lot of people who weren't party apparatchiks, who weren't working within the ranks of the Republican Party, but were Republican voters, you know, Bob Dole was not, didn't have the level of, I'm going to change things up. I'm going to write these wrongs. I'm gonna write stuff kind of energy and Perot had failed so yes instead of voting for Perot again As you've already pointed out they just stayed home. Yeah, you know

Because there they were still angry, but even Perot didn't have a legitimacy to him. He didn't, he, he was, he was tarnished as a loser in a drop And I think when you really analyze Thoreau's policy standpoint, he really was actually right on the cusp of corporatist fascists, economically speaking. Oh, he was a billionaire who did not like. In fact, he's the only reason that any hostages were rescued during the Iran hostage situation.

He sent private guys to go get it done. Like he is 100% the argument of private enterprise overall because he, with his money and his power, hired men with good guns to go take care of his people. Yeah. And he running was like I can't be bought, which any politician who says that is like, hmm. That's that's actually trouble. I would that's I would actually say that I want to hear their reason and Their reason is because they're insanely wealthy. No, thank you.

We've seen where this plays out. Yeah. But yeah, he ran on being a billionaire. He ran on being, you know, I know what I'm doing economically because look at me being successful in business. And if somebody runs like that, then yes, they're going to be corporate estateists. They're used to being the one in charge.

Do you remember when when Dana Carvey opened Saturday Night Live during the 92 campaign year as Ross Perot? Oh, yeah, yeah. My my I'm going to have three buttons on my desk. Yes. This one. This one is going to tell everybody it's time to start the workday. This is the one that's going to tell everybody it's time to start the workday This is the one that's gonna tell everybody it's time to go home and listen right here This is my favorite one this and makes the trains run on time, right?

Shit yeah, well cuz I you know everybody else looked at Dana Carvey's impersonation of him and as the funny thing because you know He did the member Perot bought time on TV for half an hour at a time to Share with us his vision Like he was the fucking Joker in the Batman movie. Yeah, you know talking about smile X. You know, but he he Dana Carvey did this great one That he was like, you know, he was he was doing he's like now I can't understand something until I've eaten it, swallowed it, taken it through my lower intestines,

pass it out. And it's just like, cause you know, he was picking on the different sayings that he would make. In fact, Will Durst, the comedian, legendary San Francisco comedian who never really played well anywhere else, which is interesting, but he made a living in San Francisco being

a comedian. He first comedian I ever saw on stage for my 18th birthday, but Will Durst had the great line about him. He said that Ross Perot is not even a person, he's an enchanted tree stump with ears, which is great because now you can't get that visual out. Yeah, that's never going away. And then the other thing he said, he impersonated him, and I have used this forever since then.

And I even put it up as a quote on my wall. And it's, you can't put a porcupine up on a bar and expect to make licorice Like I'm sorry, I'm not from that particular Right axis. What does that fucking mean? Well, that's the thing that wasn't pro speaking that was well I know fun of him, but yeah, but it's such a wonderful wonderful series of unjoined thoughts So and it's probably true. You know it's got that folksy. Oh, yeah, yeah that makes sense I Guess I guess I yeah, no yeah when the cows are laying down you don't bother going fishing

Okay, there's a thread there somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know okay. Yeah, right Look sometimes you're paddling in a boat, and you're actually on the back of a trailer. That's attached to a mule Okay now you're just reaching a mule. Okay, now you're just reaching. Well, are you speaking to the futility of what I'm doing, sir? Like, what do you? What? What? What does it mean? Look, you can't put a cream puff inside of a hamburger and expect everybody to think that it's casserole. I suppose you're right. Okay. No see the trouble there is That's the kind of thing that if if he had ever actually said that I would have been like well, okay, wait Taxonomy of food is like a thing. So hold on right? Yeah

So anyway at Survivor series proper It's the first time that we actually see these two guys wrestle on TV Unless you're in South Africa for that one night only and we weren't So right before the match Steve Austin was interviewed by Todd Pettengill who had to be on his way out of the WWF by Then and he was informed that the winner of the match would get a title shot at the WWF title So Steve Austin's response to this good news is, and you think I'm supposed to be intimidated by the way you build him up and talk about stipulations, don't you?

Don't even say a word, son. Everybody talks about the best there is, the best there was, and all that other crap. The excellence of execution. Brett, cliches are cliches, and an ass whoopin's an ass whoopin'. And that's exactly what you're gonna get at the hands of Stone Cold Steve Austin the audience can be heard popping loud for this and

Then he says and that's the bottom line and then his music hit and he walks out to a cheering audience Wow Yeah, now Brett is their fucking hero and this is his return match, but people are cheering Austin and the whole time he is walking to the ring he's staring right in the camera and he is hard staring at the camera. Cold, cold eyes, exuding menace and nastiness. And what's interesting here is that Vince McMahon even said during Austin's walkout entrance, quote, you talk about politicians JR, make no mistake about it, this man would spoil the comeback attempt of Brett the Hitman

Hart. Wow. Now Brett and Steve were supremely confident, both of them. One could even say they were both a little arrogant, but Steve's arrogance on screen was not based in reality because he was playing the heel. It was based in his being a badass and being really nasty. Bret's was based on his own record and that was wearing thin on folks and it was upsetting to folks. According to Bret, and I can confirm with what I noticed while watching the pay-per-views and listening to the crowds at that time, quote, the marks groomed by the ECW had grown in number. Oh, wow.

By the winter of 1997, and Brett actually meant 96, they regularly bought up the tickets for the first few rows of seats at all of Vince's TV shows on the East Coast just so that they could be heard on TV around the world booing the babyface and cheering the heels. Now I'm just gonna break in here. Philadelphia ruins everything. Now I'm coming back. They made life really hard for Rocky Maivia just because they knew they could get under his skin. just because they knew they could get under his skin. Oh, yeah, okay. That's Dwayne Johnson. Yeah.

The general TV audience had no idea that it was the same group of ECW fans showing up everywhere. Instead, they thought a trend was developing, and as a result, hating the good guys and loving the heels actually started to catch on. Okay, wait. So this was actually a sort of a kind of conspiracy. Yes. What?

Philadelphia wrestling fans. Son of a yaw. The people who throw batteries at fucking Santa Claus. Yes. The people who brought a canoe to a wrestling match Not a canoe Well eventually not a good first. It was a a kayak, but yeah, yeah She meant flippin Christmas. I will I will probably come back to this quote again later after discussing the Royal Rumble and but this was Definitely piece of the puzzle for why folks were turning on Bret Hart and why Austin, despite his best efforts,

was actually getting cheered more and more. Now in Bret's promo right before his entrance, right? And Austin was trying to be the heel. He wanted to be the heel, right? Now, Bret's promo right before his entrance, Todd Pettengill said that Bret had called Austin the best wrestler in WWF today and that he was about to face him in seconds.

And Bret noted after the match that when he watched it, he noticed how much the commentary was dedicated to pulling him down a bit. Quote, when I heard it later, I got the first hit of what lay ahead of me. JR described me as being slow getting up and attributed it to ring rust. Bret Hart with a huge move can't execute the cover. Vince was quick to add, he just didn't have it JR. He couldn't capitalize on it.

I felt that they were going out of their way to portray me as an old and beat up guy while I was only doing my best to make Steve look strong while still getting putting me over. And this was true the whole time. The whole narrative seemed to be from early on that Brett was fading away and that this was his last chance at glory and that Austin was hungrier than Brett was. Now imagine how this would play to Republicans who are mad that they had just lost. At least they knew that Clinton's second term would be his last and that they would have a chance at power again. Okay. All right.

So Brett's response to Pettengill, and remember, Brett is not the best interview and Stone Cold is fucking electric. Quote, the one thing that Stone Cold Steve Austin doesn't have going for him in this match is the fact that this is Madison Square Garden and I meant it when I said it's not a church but it's holy ground. Well it is. I've got my fans out here and I've got my fans all around the world and they've been waiting for this very moment. Now where I stand we're all gonna find out right now but Stone Cold remember one thing I'm not greedy for money I'm greedy for respect and when this thing's all said and done you will respect me He

Just wasn't in the same league as Austin when it came to promos and Brett as MIT has admitted as much He was quieter. He wasn't as natural a talker and frankly He didn't really seem to have much of a stake in things for this Match if you're listening to his promos. And also his goals couldn't really be realized. How could Stone Cold ever show respect to Brett given Stone Cold's character? And Brett was talking the whole time while Austin's music was playing too. So there's just so many factors that go into building a match a certain way. And Brett looked weak on the mic because of most of it. And Brett looked weak on the mic because of most of it.

But when his music hit, and it hits with a very... loud... up-tempo beat, or a loud screech, I'm sorry. There was a huge pop that sustained it. And then rose even bigger when he hit the aisle. It was an enormous fucking pop, because this is the first he's back, and the staging of it was great

Brett took the center of the ring played to the different sides of the garden and the sound never stopped It never abated Steve Austin backed off to the corner to give him the space as a fellow performer, but his character was such that He was just like looking and you know shit talking here from the side and didn't care. Mudding and yeah. Yeah, and he let Brett have his moments. Brett even gave his glasses to a kid at ringside and he connected with that kid and that kid's family as he always did. When Brett got back in the ring everybody popped again and Austin looked at him incredulously and then he started jawing.

He went to the other part of the ring and started jawing with the family that Brett had given the glasses to. Oh, seriously? Yeah. And then the bell rang and the two of them meet up nose to nose. All right. So I had you watch a good chunk of the beginning of the match. Do you notice Steve Austin's body language here?

The whole time, the way he carries himself. Even from the beginning, how he walks up without looking Brett in the eye and brings his head up to look Brett in the eye, right? To meet his gaze. Very much old bull, young bull stuff, right? Yeah, and then they get start to jogging drawing back and forth and then Austin hits Brett with the double bird Which got a whoa out of the announcers and from the crowd because it was Unheard of to use such gestures. And in fact, yeah, they did such a clever job with the camera work That you could tell that Austin had flipped him off,

but you didn't see him flipping him off. Yeah, yeah, I actually, when I was watching, I was like, wait, what did he do with his hands? What did he do? Yeah, I was like, oh yeah, and then he flipped him and burned, like, oh, oh, shit, okay. And Brett and Austin were both hesitant to lock up, drawing the crowd into it and getting them into it more,

and then they finally got going. And then they finally got going. And then immediately Austin got Brett in the corner and the ref broke it up. And what I love is that Austin broke cleanly, but then he got right in Brett's face and started wagging his head and jawjacking it, right? Brett just shoved him away. He's not intimidated, but he's definitely chagrined.

So this plays toward Brett's frustration at Austin Yeah, Austin was visibly frustrated as he kept finding ways around Brett's technique But all of the ways that he I'm sorry Austin kept poking his finger at Brett and Brett kept out wrestling him So Austin finds himself frustrated and all that, all the ways that Austin got around Brett's technique was to be more nasty and more cruel. And Brett even gave him a taste of his own medicine.

And JR, Jim Ross, mentioned multiple times that Brett was in great shape, but that the ring was the ultimate test, not the gym. Yeah. Yeah. And then the audience starts chanting, let's go, Brett, and there's some really good mat wrestling there, right? And I don't know about you, but I got lost watching it.

It's hard to keep analyzing because of how good it was. But there's just reversal after reversal, and he keeps letting, so from a working perspective, he keeps letting Austin get him in those positions, showing that Austin belongs there with him, but he keeps getting out of it, showing that he is still the true master, right? Yeah.

Now the times that Austin began to build some momentum were when he was violent, and we paused it before I had you watch, but he was violent and he was vicious and he was brawly. And it wasn't just his elbows that he was using, but it would be the point of his elbows. Oh, wow. All right. And as soon as Austin went to get a hold,

Brett would then go to reverse it, right? So Austin is starting to learn that to beat Brett, I have to be brutal, I have to be mean. And Brett would keep getting into trouble anytime Austin would hit a high-impact move Yeah, or when Austin would use the ring to his advantage as a weapon and keep the pressure on him that way He would choke him against the ropes and stuff like that Now they get to a point in the match where Brett and Austin start trading punches back and forth and Austin wins that contest He got Brett into the corner and starts just stomping him and

then Brett actually got a reversal and started doing all of his shine-up moves as the audience cheered increasingly for him until Austin actually countered an attempt of Brett's to do a bulldog. So a bulldog is where if I get you in a headlock with your body behind me, I run and I jump and I drive your head into the ground. Okay. Okay. So he tries to do a Bulldog attempt, but Austin drives Brett chest first into the turnbuckle. Oh, wow.

Brett hits it. Yeah. And it's a move that Brett does. It's this really, you know, it's kind of his thing. And the thing is almost all of Austin's moves were somehow in concert with the ring He's using the ring to hurt Brett. He's using the ring. He wasn't beating Brett fair and square not mono-e-mono Well, I'm not ring as a weapon right right. He's a heel It's what he's gonna do and all the times that he's gaining an advantage over Brett is where and when

He sneaks in a shot on Bret too. So not only do I have the move but I'm gonna rabbit punch you. Austin ends up throwing Bret out of the ring and he begins brutalizing Bret outside of the ring and Austin went back into the ring to avoid a countout before coming back out to jawjack with fans and to fight with Bret. So it's not just enough to beat him up it's also you got to get in the face of the people he likes Right at this point Brett Hart starts fighting back and was doing more brawling than anything else He even rammed Austin's head into the steel barricade

He then put Austin yeah, uh and these were the old Like bike rack barricades looking yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he then put Austin back in the ring and then rolled out of the ring again Hart went after Austin on the outside So he puts Austin back in the ring Austin actually rolls out of the ring on the other side heart chases after him where Austin then launched Brett into the Spanish announcer table and Just started punching the shit out of Brett and this was still pretty dang new for the WWF at the time. Brett had been put through the Spanish announcer table, I think the year before at SummerSlam by Diesel.

Austin then went back into the ring to vamp for the crowd before grabbing Brett and slamming him onto the non-gimmick table and driving his elbow into Hart's chest from the apron. So he'd jump off the apron and drive his elbow in and you hear nothing will stop Steve Austin, nothing from the announcers. And that's the story that they were telling as the crowd kept chanting let's go Brett to kind of rally their champion. Brett continued to kick out and Austin got meaner and meaner and meaner and the audience changed his chance To let's go hit man clap clap clap clap clap

Austin then turned to the crowd and flipped them all off at this point This is that moment this as far as I could tell this was the first time he'd done something like this The audience then broke into competing chance for the first time I'd ever heard. Let's go Austin, let's go Hitman, let's go Austin, let's go Hitman. I think this is the ECW fans. It's totally, yeah. Yeah. Austin was doing all that he could to be a heel and not get cheered and he picked a verbal fight with the ref and then he backed down from the ref. He's doing everything to keep the audience from liking him. So even though he's a tough son of a bitch

and he's never gonna give up, he starts jawjacking with the ref and the ref gets back in his face and he backs away. He chickens out. And then Hart and Austin got into his great exchange of fists that built and built to this huge crescendo where the audience cheered at every victory Brett had. Every time he slugged Austin, the audience cheered

and it registered. And eventually he knocked Austin down. And then he hit Austin with Austin's own move called the stun gun. And that's where he picks you up like in a bear hug, but like your butt is around chest level. So he's picking you up like you would hold Rob. And then he falls back and his opponent lands on you. but like your butt is around chest level. So he's picking you up like you would hold Rob.

And then he falls back and his opponent lands on the front rope, the top rope. Oh, wow. Yeah, and that was called the stun gun in WCW. And then Brett went for the roll up victory as McMahon was lamenting that Hart couldn't capitalize. Then Hart goes and hits his standard moves and any reversal that Austin created was followed with brutality and involved a flurry of punches and kicks and he used

the ring to hurt Brett again and he actually starts getting cheers this way and then he used Hart's top rope suplex on Brett Hart. So Brett Hart would put a guy up on the top rope and he would climb to the top and get him in rope suplex on Bret Hart so Bret Hart would put a guy up on the top rope And he would climb to the top and get him in a suplex and he would superplex him back into the ring Okay, Brett still had the presence of mind even though he was being suplexed to then Wrap up Steve's legs and arms and try to pin him Okay, still failed but showing like he's always yeah. Yeah. Yeah the audience starts cheering for the hitman on again,

and Steve Austin gets the stunner on Brett, and he tried to drag Brett to the middle of the ring and cover him instead of pinning him right there where he's too close to the ropes. So if you're too close to the ropes, you put your foot on the rope, and that would break the hold. Okay. So he drags him to the middle, but he's having trouble because he's tired and Brett's tired.

So he drags him having been stunned to the middle and then tries to pin him and that little delay is just enough to give credibility to Brett kicking out. So he protects this stunner. Okay. Yeah, but you know now a huge pop a shit ton of pin attempts and then Austin started punching the shit out of Brett out of frustration and Brett still refused to be pinned Austin then put Brett into a Leg lock it called the Texas cloverleaf, which honestly kind of reminds me of Frank gotchas toehold Okay, all right, but Brett was able to little fucking yeah. Yeah, like oh, do you like having a knee right? But it's the Texas cloverleaf right it's a different. It's a different hole that involves your arms and his legs

It's not a leg-on-leg hold right it's not a figure four. It's not a sharpshooter But Brett being the consummate professional he is he actually manages to drag the both of them to the rope, and that forces Austin to break the hold after a five count. So Austin's still taking all the liberties, right? Now Austin kept kicking Brett in the back of the head, so extra brutal. And again, head kicks are legal in wrestling. But you don't normally do them,

you're normally kicking the guy in the gut or in the back or in the legs. He's specifically targeting the head. It's legal, but it's nasty, right? And then he picks up Bret to punch the shit out of his stomach. Like just picks him up and starts wailing on his stomach. And then he sent Bret across the ring again,

this time kidneys first, into the ring post. Now, Austin tried again to pin Brett, still a kick out, and then he put Brett into a bow and arrow. So that's where you put your opponents back across your shins as you lay on the ground, and you grab his chin, and you grab his knees, and you bend him to make him the bow as you push up with your knees. Yeah, yeah.

Now, Brett got out of that, and then he goes for the sharpshooter and the crowd pops Huge and then Austin gets to the ropes which leads to Brett punching the shit out of Austin and JR this whole time is putting Austin over saying quote Austin is a whole lot more than a schoolyard bully Then he puts Austin a sleeper hold just basically, you know, it's a choke hold. Yeah. And Austin drops to his butt, and that gets Brett to, you know, hit his jaw on Austin's head,

and that's called the jaw breaker, and it breaks the move. And JR then asks, what do you gotta do to beat this man? Now Brett is down, and Austin stalks Brett and gets behind him, and he goes to put him in the million dollar dream Now the million dollar dream is also known as the camel clutch. It's what sergeant slaughter used to use not the camel clutch I'm sorry the Cobra clutch, right? Um, so it's a version. It's a modified sleeper. It's a yeah

But the finish for Brett versus Steve ends up being a redo of the WrestleMania 8 finish where Brett fought a brawler, outsmarted him, and beat him with smarts but not due to physicality. And I'm going to show you this finish real quick. So describe the look on Austin's face after Brett beats him, not by beating him, but by winning against him. Right. Because he didn't out physical him. No, no. He simply used his own body weight,

and Austin, the strength of Austin's hold, who wasn't gonna let go, to outsmart Austin into a pinning predicament. So describe Austin's face after the fact. In the instance immediately after it there is Incredulity

Mm-hmm like he he does not believe that it has happened. Mm-hmm. He he does not understand how it happened He has been somehow bamboozled And then when he gets out of the ring he is It happened. He has been somehow bamboozled. And then when he gets out of the ring, he is, he is I fucking Brett, like he is, he is just the, the glowering. Word for it. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, just this, this, this. It's remarkable. You know, the thing is I don't think he, and I'm going to say also other, other wrestlers, I don't think they get enough credit as actors. No, they don't because, because there is so much going on on his face.

He's not, you know, screaming and shouting and doing anything bombastic. He is quiet. Yes. And anything out of character is a big deal. Right? Yeah. And like his instincts as a, like I'm watching that as, as, you know, somebody who has gotten taught how to be a stage actor. I'm looking at that and I'm like That fucking like that's really good instincts. That's yeah brilliant and and you can the announcer like right before we we clicked away from from the video Jr. Jr. JD. Yep. Yeah, okay. Jim Ross. They are JR says, you know, you can tell that this this this rivalry Between or this feud did you say feud rivalry rivalry rivalry this rivalry between? Brett Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin is nowhere near over. Yep. It's just beginning like yes, you know in that in that

Greek chorus. Yeah. Thank you captain and obvious in that, in that Greek chorus, yeah, thank you, Captain Obvious. Like, yes, I figured that out, you know. And, and the way that Austin is glaring at him is, it's art. Yeah, it's yeah. Yes, it is. So this match told such a great story, right. Brett had an unending reserve of moves, ideas and abilities, but he was still endangered by Steve Austin's unending anger, anger and nastiness. Yeah, it really is like they they managed to they managed to tell a story about the guy who is the excellence of execution. Like every, every, at the beginning of the match, every move that we saw from

heart was skill. It was, I, I am, I have trained to do this to within an inch of my life. I am in very good physical condition and I am a big strong man, but I am also fast and I have finesse. Yes. And like whatever you throw at me, like you said a minute ago, you know, I have an unending well of, uh, moves and options. I can go anywhere from anywhere. Yeah.

And Austin is just backbored by rage. Yes. It's fighter versus barbarian. Yeah. And yeah, yeah, that's a really good. That's a really good analogy. What immediately occurred to me as I was saying it in a in a Warhammer 40,000 kind of way it's like Uh, you know any number of the loyalist primarchs against angron, you know, the leader of the world leaders It's like, you know, i'm a consummate peerless warrior and da da da and yeah, no, I just have

Uh wires in my brain that mean I always want to kill everyone around me You know like right, you know, um my brain that mean I always want to kill everyone around me. Right. You know, like, you know, yeah, and, and again, I at some point I might have to start watching wrestling because the the the actual dramaturgy of the entire thing is Honestly, they ought to teach this stuff in in drama school Yeah, like yeah, I fully agree if you want to if you want to have a story arc with a climax and you know This this this is how you do it And you know and to have something for people to tune into the next time Yeah, this was not the end, as JR said, right?

Here's what would be playing out after Survivor Series, right? So this was Survivor Series, pay per view. They built this match without Bret even being a part of it for months and months and months. Bret comes back, they fast-tracked the build even from there, and now it gets jolt after jolt, right? Austin just steps up his nastiness attacks his best friend his former best friend multiple ways right goes and attacks him again while he's Convalescing from the first attack beats the shit out of people six ways from Sunday

Goes hunting for Bret Hart all these things and he still came up short in the fight. When it mattered, he still lost. When it came to fighting by the rules, he still lost. Austin was out of tricks for the most part with Bret. He finally got him in the ring, had him right where he wanted him, damn near beat him, couldn't get the job done. Austin wanted to stay over, or Brett wanted to stay over and move on

which made a lot of sense. No Austin, I'm sorry, he wanted to stay over and by stay over I mean you know as a wrestler and move on which made a lot of sense and Brett wanted to move on to the championship title picture. After all this match was supposed to get him there. Yeah yeah yeah. Also made sense. In fact if Austin kept chasing Brett and not leaving him alone, like he swore he wouldn't do, then he could continue his rise by making Brett's life hell and elevating himself and setting himself up

as a challenger for the title down the road. Right, right, right. So his hate-filled frustration and the brutality wasn't a match for Hitman's patience, Hitman's excellence and his athleticism and his ring smarts and his technique. And that's the story that they told. The only thing that Austin could count on was outlasting Brett with his anger. And he came really close. He put Brett in danger, but he couldn't make it work.

Right. As the time after the match would wear on, Steve would become rage and frustration unleashed. And you thought it was bad before. What's interesting is that Steve shows his frustration and his rage as growing and growing and growing specifically against black and brown talent. Taking on Los Boricuas.

So you might remember Savio Vega from the last few episodes. Yeah, yeah. Savio Vega started a stable called Los Boricuas and they were a bunch of Puerto Rican wrestlers who all dressed the same and who were a faction and they would give Savio unfair advantage and Steve Austin went through them like fucking butter. He also took on the nation of domination. Now the nation of domination is absolutely recalling

the idea of the nation of Islam. Their leader was Farouk. He wore a beret, he did the fist, he had the kente cloth, but most of the guys in the nation of domination at that time, it was a multi-ethnic group. It would not be an all black group until shortly. I want to say shortly before the following survivor series. It was somewhere in there. Okay. But the, but the overtones are definitely there. They're all part of this faction that is colored this way Yeah, she shaded that way. Yes. Yeah, so Also, Brett was Canadian and Steve is an American and not just an American a Texan, right?

So this Canadian versus American dynamic wasn't really an issue. Now, what's interesting also is that Brett is Canadian, but he's a Calgarian, which is basically Canada's Texas. The Texas of Canada. Yeah, Kelly. Yeah. Yeah.

But this dynamic wasn't really an issue until Brett would later point it out. So that's kind of how, yeah, how it goes. Now in short, in that match, Brett wrestled and Steve fought. Yeah, that's a good way of, yeah, that's a good way of characterizing it. Now, Austin could then draw on that too, the frustration that he was outsmarted, but not out fought. He could play to the psychology of what had happened in the beginning of the November election Rhett considered the issue done. I taught him a lesson. I'm ready to move on I won the election. It's time to govern But Steve didn't yeah, he would step up his attacks and such afterwards

and this was when the attacks and interruptions started happening and That's where I want to leave it for this episode Okay, so I think I've gotten us exactly two weeks further in the store Well, you know you're working with a very very narrow but deep timeline yes, yeah, so At this point what have you gleaned? I mean I already said that like people don't give wrestlers enough credit as actors like

There are there are many of them that like don't deserve more credit as actors But there are there are I think more of them deserve more credit as actors, but there are, I think, more of them who, you know, you see how it is that some of them are able to successfully transition from the ring into being in front of the camera. That's actually something that a wrestler said when he was on his podcast. I'm not going to name him because he's turned out to be a real piece of shit. But as many do, sadly, but that's true. A lot of artists.

But he said that a lot of folks were shocked at how professional he was on set. And he responded with, I do this every day for a job. We know when to show up, we know when to be places. We get our shit done, we got to get to the gym And it's just but there's this thing in Hollywood of like yeah, there's a wrestler on set. He's fucking on time What the hell, you know, right? Yeah, and also one would one would assume after you've spent the amount of time Having a travel in shitty conditions and stay in flea bag motels and you know

like being anywhere on a movie set is like oh my god I'm in Valhalla yeah you know like yes I'm gonna I'm gonna hit all my yeah I'm gonna hit all my lines I'm gonna do everything because like I don't want to fuck this up right this is cushy yeah you know I'm not I'm not, I'm not having to, you know, change clothes in the, in the, you know, storage room of an armory. So yeah. But beyond, beyond that, just the, the,

the remarkable way that, uh, this medium created the circumstances where somebody could unwittingly, uh, crystallize something that was going on in, in, in the, in the popular subconscious. Like it wasn't even like it, at this phase of things, we weren't even aware of how fucking angry so many people were. Yeah. Yeah. Like the people who were like the people who were angry, weren't really aware of like how they were angry or who they were angry at right? You know and and if you would confront him about it a bit. No, I'm not. Yeah, it's whatever it's bullshit

I'm loose. I'm I just didn't like yeah I just didn't like that fucker, you know, but no there wasn't deep seated you know, but no there wasn't deep seated you know frustration and How dare he reverse that hold on us? Yeah You know, how dare you be good at the things? He said he'd be good at and help more people than he hurt. How dare he how very dare sir Yeah and and you know the.

At that point still fairly deeply buried white supremacy. Mm hmm. The the under way it was poking up. It was poking up a lot more. But it was kind of like, oh a dandelion in amongst my garden. I can yeah that yeah Like it was noticeable when it poked up not like yeah, it's everywhere. It's not it wasn't mint yet Yeah

Or a cucumber mine. Yes. Yeah, it was it had not it had not taken over the garden bed. Yeah Like now like you know the other the other thing that strikes me about all of this is listening to The Republican platform from 96 listening to what all of the Republicans were saying in 96 like You know, I can totally draw a line from there to here and I can see how yeah Okay that that platform is like, you know, pretty, pretty regressive, like, holy cow. But we've had almost 30 years of time and our our and the ambient temperature we're having the the right wing fascism thermostat has just crept upward

to the point that I'm looking around like, oh, hey, the water is bubbling. And I'm kind of enjoying looking back at a time when the chef didn't have his hand on the knob for the stove. Yeah quite so hard It's it's really something like yeah, that's that's really conservative, but that sounds downright fucking reasonable compared to So much shit now. Yeah, you know And that's that's dreary

Not not so much because of what we're talking about but about the comparison to where we are now sure So yeah, I'd say those those are my biggest biggest takeaways Well, what are you recommending for people to intake? I am going to recommend the biography of Tokugawa Ieyasu written by Stephen Turnbull. Again, as preparation for what I'm going to be talking about when when I take over. Because

it is it's it's skinny. It's it's relative. It's very short. You can finish it. If you're interested in it at all, you can finish it in an hour and a half, two hours. It's part of a series of biographies of famous military leaders from Osprey publishing. But it's very well written, very concise and manages to capture enough of the man's personality for you to kind of get behind his eyes and and understand him without it being too too heavy or too intricate a read. So that's that's what I'm going to strongly recommend. How about you? I'm gonna recommend Matt Forbeck's trilogy of novellas. It's called Brave New World Revolution, Brave New World Resolution, and Brave New World Revelation.

Each of them is maybe only 80 pages long, but I recommend all three of those because they're about a dystopian time where we have an alternate history, therefore an alternate future, and it involves super beings. And it's a really cool set of novellas that he wrote. I wanna say 10 years after he designed the, yeah, it was 13 years after or so he designed the game system brave new world So okay, we're novel set in that lore so I'm gonna recommend those for reasons that I will share later Okay, very cool. Where can we be found? Collectively we have a website at wubba wubba wubba geek history time calm where you can peruse our archives

Find any number of subjects that might catch your interest. You know, soup to nuts, we cover all kinds of stuff. And we also can be found on the Amazon podcast app, the Apple podcast app, and on Spotify. So wherever it is that you have found us since you're listening to us right now, please take a moment to make sure you subscribe and give us the five star review that Damien's exhaustive research has earned us. How about you? Let's see by the time this airs, you can find me on the first Friday of every month at Capital Punishment. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say

December 6th, January 3rd, February 7th, March 7th. Any of those tickle your fancy, you should come out and check us out. It's a wonderful time. It's at the Sacramento Comedy Spot in Sacramento. If you go to saccomedyspot.com forward slash calendars or it's calendar, I forget. Anyway, click on the calendar.

Get over to that first Friday, buy your ticket now. If you don't live in the greater Sacramento area, then buy your online ticket now so that you can see our show when it goes live. All right. Cool, well, for A Geek History of Time, I'm Damian Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s.