A Geek History of Time - Episode 295 - The Fall of the Hitman and the Rise of the Rattlesnake Part VI

Episode Date: December 20, 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 goddamn 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 here in Northern California at the middle school level. And last night my wife decided that you know since we were starting a weekend I actually I don't know what her thought process was but for whatever reason I guess just her ADD bug like bit really hard and she decided to try to reorganize the closet in the room where I am recording right now,

which is our guest room slash office area. And in the process of doing that, I got called in to deal with some of my stuff in the closet. And I had completely forgotten about this, but my folks had, like a year and a half ago Brought up with them on a trip a box full of these guys and I'm holding the picture I'm holding this up in front of the camera for for Damien a

My entire pewter collection of miniatures. I know that miniature. Yeah collection of miniatures. I was gonna say, I know that miniature. Yeah. I know it from... Yeah, from all the way back to when I was in middle school. Yeah, those were the ones that you get. Like, wow. Okay, for the audience, you're holding up a... I am on okay you said yeah a wizard holding his staff out in front of him with both hands he's got a conical the whole traditional conical hat cloak robe I painted him up in a white robe with a kind of a orange red hat band he was this this was a miniature I used for a fire wizard character of mine. And so that's a reason for all the reddish kind of tones and all the accents on him. But I got that one. And I got

this one here, which is uh, the model is supposed to be Tika Waylon Majeri from Dragonlance because she was part of the whole set of Dragonlance characters that you could get a box set of, which I did. But I wound up painting her up with different hair color and different colors in her armor. And then this is actually one I bought painted from the store. And yeah, so I had a moment of some very, very, several moments of some very powerful nostalgia. And I kind of sat there staring in the box just going, oh my God.

And both feeling very, very kind of comforted by the memories and also really really really old so yeah that's that's one of the notable things that happened to me this week how about you well I'm Damian Harmony I'm a US history teacher up here in Northern California at the high school level and I I got a ringing endorsement from my children tonight to go record and I think it was in reaction to the fact that I was blasting the Bay City Roller Saturday night and dancing to it in front of them. Because then it was go the fuck upstairs. So congratulations. You have, you have reached,

that's level 20, daddy. Oh yeah, yeah. Right there, you've taken all the prestige feats. Like you're. Yeah. It was cool. It was fun. I can't wait to embarrass my son like that.

Uh-huh. In his own house, like, oh God, Dad. It's all right. Nice work. All right, so when last we left things. Austin was frustrated, right? And Brett was frustrated. When was Austin not frustrated?

True, true. But Austin's frustration expressed differently than Brett's, if you recall. Brett was used to winning on the ring. Austin was, I'm going to hound you until I decide otherwise, win, lose, or draw. And so it doesn't really matter what the rules are, I'm going to exert violence upon you.

This only leads to Bret getting more and more frustrated. And so while Steve Austin's violence was given voice and given expression Brett Hart's frustration was almost a neutering thing Which is what was kind of turning him Okay. Yeah, yeah you yeah the the way you had described it If thinking back on you were talking about how it was very

His his frustration was petulant. Mm-hmm. It was it was whingey and and not It was empowering. It was not justified strength, but you're right He kept following the rules as they were put in front of him, did Bret Hart, and Steve Austin kept breaking the rules to attack Bret Hart. Bret was trying to move past Austin. Austin was trying to stick on Bret.

And the night after the Royal Rumble, where Bret threw Steve Austin out of the ring, everybody saw it, except for the referees. And then Steve snuck back in, then he threw Brett out to win the Royal Rumble. So the next night on Raw, on January 20th, 1997, Brett Hart started off by storming to the ring for a promo. Like he was the opening promo.

Uh, not even any music to announce him. So, like, it had a very, forgive the pun, raw feel to it in that... Okay. Oh, he's so pissed he's not even waiting for intro music. This is not a planned segment, you know? This is not theatrical. This is... Right. Yeah, right, right.

He is pissed. He comes down to the ring, and he grabs the mic out of Howard Finkel's hand And and then he just starts cutting a promo and he says quote There's something I've got to say something I've got to say and I'm something I've got to say to you and he points specifically at Vince McMahon Who at this point largely was still kayfabe just an announcer? So he's pointing out of the ring to Vince who's sitting at ringside as an announcer. Okay. Now some people are starting to recognize that Vince is the owner. Austin had called him out as the owner, if you remember.

Right. Yeah. Now, obviously nothing in all of this happens without Vince, you know,% rubber stamping it. So this is this is oh not just He's guiding a lot of it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, so so like he is Part of part of the narrative here That's that's now starting to surface is this is the beginning of Vince McMahon Really becoming a character in his own in his own company, I mean of Vince McMahon really becoming a character in his own company? I mean, he's kind of been, but like... He's not, okay, so he's not,

he has not become the Mr. McMahon character at all yet. Okay, so he's not villain Vince McMahon. He is, in many ways, his and Eric Bischoff's paths are parallel to each other to the date Eric Bischoff was an announcer, but he was also the executive vice president of WCW he was the guy making all the decisions right and then the NWO started attacking Eric Bischoff and Then it came out that he was in charge and they co-opted him. So here you've got Vince has kind of been outed as well. It's a little you did it all we'll try it kind of thing but we're going to do our own thing.

Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say though is this is the very beginning of the process that leads to what you refer to as the mr. McMahon Character yes like this. This is this is where that the beginning of that turn No, no, this is not a turn yet. No, no. Yeah. All right. Okay, so Here's a way to think of it. This is Tom Hanks getting Getting the role in a league of their own Okay, had he done other roles? Yes.

This one was the one that showed, holy fuck, this guy can act. Yeah. Then we'll get Philadelphia. So this is, Vince is becoming more than just the on-air announcer. It is being acknowledged that he's the owner, but they're not doing anything with it with him having a motive

Okay, okay ten four. All right. All right. So all right. All right So yeah, Vince is still largely kayfabe the announcer and Brett continues Pointing his finger at Vince, you know when I decided to come back to the World Wrestling Federation You promised me that I would get an opportunity to fight for the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt. Now this the crowd is pretty riveted. Remember Brett's not the best promo but he's pissed and he has broken form in a lot of ways and they're they're riveted and more importantly they're cheering him on because he's mad. Quote, you put me in the ring with Stone Cold Steve Austin and

said that if I could beat Stone Cold Steve Austin that I would be the number one contender for the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt. Now don't you think it's just a little bit convenient that for some stupid reason, Shawn Michaels finds himself outside at ringside announcing at my championship match with Psycho Sid? I don't think it was any kind of coincidence either. And so now he's kind of pointing out like, hey, you, you're not a bad guy per se, Vince, but you clearly are favoring Sean and I'm pissed about it. And again, all of this is the slow build toward ultimately a Sean and Brett feud. But that's not what I'm talking about. Right? Yeah. Now then Brett went on to detail how things went from Sean Michaels' interference through to the Royal Rumble.

He was plaintive. He spoke as though it was a conspiracy against him, Bret Hart. And Brett pointed out that he had won the Royal Rumble and should be getting a shot at the title. And the audience popped at that Quote where is my opportunity the way I look at things right now. I've been screwed by Shawn Michaels the boy toy I've been screwed by Stone Cold Steve Austin. I've been screwed by the World Wrestling Federation, and I've been screwed by you and

Vince at this point walks away And then Brett says, you know, I don't like to make idle threats, but the way I see things, it doesn't look like I'm gonna get my opportunity at the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt, so I quit. And he threw down the mic, hopped the rail,

walked through the fans and left. The audience ate this shit up and cheered for him big time, and they're hitting these, we want Brett chats really loud Remember prior to this they were tepid about him. They booed him, right? So you have a few things happening Brett is coming out at an unannounced time He's going off Seemingly like seemingly going off script. Um, he's not acting like the hitman that we all know.

He's running through, he's walking through the crowd. All of these things are stuff that the WCW has been doing for a while now with the NWO, with DDP, with Sting, and all of this stuff. I think at this time, DDP and Macho Man Savage are starting their feud. There's a lot of running through the crowd to get away from the NWO and stuff like that that DDP's doing.

So they're grabbing the trappings of what WCW does, and they're having Bret Hart do it, and Bret Hart is WWF's biggest star. And he's been this baby face who always is, he's the excellence of execution. He's virtually untouchable. He sets his mind on something and he gets there. And now he's frustrated.

He's so frustrated and he's finally giving voice to it. Previously he was gonna deal with it in the ring. Fine, I'll take out those 30 guys at the Royal Rumble fine I'll beat Stone Cold Steve Austin fine And now it's just time and time again, and he is just boiled over and the crowd starts chanting for him again They haven't been cheering him Consistently for a while and right this really turns them to being on his side again Okay, so just real quick one one thing I want to I want to make sure to clarify

When you're talking about this going on at WCW when you say DDP, that's diamond Dallas page, right? Yes. Okay Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, okay You're absolutely right. Yeah diamond Dallas page and you said ultimate warrior. No the nbo. Yeah macho man savage. Okay And nwo that whole storyline is like is this is this like at the at the pitch of NWO like like nwo is still gaining steam, but they are they are a juggernaut at this point even in fact, it's in many ways the DDP

diamond Dallas page and Macho Man Savage feud that kind of launches them even further because the NWO has kind of been chewing everyone up and spitting them out Diamond Dallas page is the first one to really push back right and. And then Roddy Piper is going to show up. Actually, I think he's already shown up and that kind of flamed out. I mean, it kept people's interest for a while, but now DDP is the one that's keeping the interest and Sting keeps descending from the rafters to save people. Save everybody. Yeah.

But by December of 97, the NWO storyline will have concluded. So we're in January of 90s. OK. All right. So have concluded so we're in January Okay, so we're so we're about 12 months out from the end of that. Oh, yeah, and they fuck it up they absolutely fuck it up, but Well, you know at the end of the day, it's it's you know Ted Turner being you know, it's Hulk Hogan. Oh Okay, it's Hulk Hogan. Yeah. Yeah, he well because now when you say fucks it up Mm-hmm, and I know we're you know drifting but sure

when you say he fucks it up is it I Assume it's not Him not sticking the landing on something. It's him fucking everybody else over. Yeah, it's that. So the short version is you've got this 18 month long storyline where Sting never is in the ring. Sting is, well, he never wrestles. He comes down, beats the shit out of the whole team,

and then takes off before they can regain. So he's been off, although they have their own training facility, so how you couldn't have him just keeping in ring shape. I don't know but okay at at at um, oh god What's it called? I think it's starcade of 97 sting is Finally gets his shot against Hogan Right or the title right and it was supposed to be, and again, it's a stupid finish. WCW like had finishitis. They were really bad at the finishes. They had everything else, but not the finishes, right?

Okay, so Monty Python couldn't figure out endings. Right. So. We don't know how to end this skit, so we just say fuck it. Yes. So Sting was supposed to get Hogan. Sting was supposed to beat Hogan, but Hogan had creative control, and he said I don't want to get beat cleanly and they're like, okay, okay, we'll come up with a You know a fucked finish basically so no he he is supposed to beat Sting But the ref is supposed to count a fast count Then now this is December of 97 so i'm giving a little bit away here Yeah, bread heart by that point had come over to wcw

Okay, having been screwed in montreal right? Yeah now well, I mean we all anybody who's followed this podcast already knows about the montreal Right, and i'm actually not gonna talk i'm not gonna get to the Montreal screw job because I know I'm I'm talking about Austin and Brett's feud Not yeah Brett and Sean's feud, but he had been screwed at the Montreal school screw job. So Brett Was supposed to notice that there was a fast count come down Tell force them to restart the match and referee the match himself down, tell, force them to restart the match and referee the match himself. Then Sting gets the clean finish and submits Hogan in the, in the middle of the ring. Right. That was the agreed upon plan, uh,

as a compromise to Sting is going to beat Hogan in the center. Hogan's been going for, uh, 18 months with a tiny one-week break in between, but he's been going for 18 months tearing through everything and defeating everybody and having the NWO just dominate WCW. Sting is supposed to basically right the ship, right? Hogan exerted creative control, said no, it needs to be a fucked finish. So they're like, okay, how about this?

Brett just got screwed on WWF, and so he knows what it's like to be screwed, and so can we do it that way? Hogan's like, okay, fine. But then Hogan talks to the referee, Nick Patrick, and pressures him and says, don't count a fast count. And that's exactly what happens. Nick Patrick counts one, two, three,

goes to ring the bell, he's defeated Sting. Bret Hart comes out and punches Nick Patrick and is like, that was a fast count, blah, blah, blah, restart the match. Now it looks really stupid. Yeah. It, it, yeah. And, and then, and then Hogan does the honors for Sting, but because it's, it looks this

stupid. Now Hogan has, it's, it's almost a dusty finish, right? Where the good guy won, but now we've got a reason to a hold up the title And so the next night they demand that sting give back the title that he'd won After Brett reset the match and then he and Hogan have a rematch now that makes sense that you'd want to chase a rematch That's a standard dusty roads thing but with a storyline like this you absolutely needed it to be done with that final match. And instead, they extended it and they fucked it up. So it's OK. Yeah.

That but that's December of 97. Yeah. Yeah, we're sorry. Yeah, I just yeah. Yeah. Right. OK. So Stone Cold comes to the ring after Brett throws down the mic and leaves. He comes and remember, Brett doesn't go up the ramp. So there's no way he and Stone Cold could have Interacted Stone Cold comes down the ramp to the ring and And finds a mic and gets on it and it didn't work

And then he throws it to the ground and then he grabs another mic and I think that one didn't work And then he says nice and loud you're gonna give me a piece of equipment that works son Or do I have to whoop your ass? Huge pop. Now everybody's focused on him, not Brett who's just laughing. And then he says, quote, Brett Hart, you can sit there and complain and belly ache with the best of them son. Ever since you came back, you ain't done nothing but cry.

You sit there and talk about how Vince screwed you, how everybody screwed you, how I screwed you. The bottom line is son, when the going gets tough, the hearts get going back home. Now, real quick, he cheated in the Royal Rumble. Yeah, and everybody saw him do it. Everybody. Doesn't matter. The crowd starts cheering for him for calling out Brett for being a pussy. Brett was right the whole way

Yeah, and and Steve comes out and he's just you know, you all you ever do is run and complain and it's like Bro, you're the reason anybody's complaining. You keep cheating. You keep breaking all the rules like yeah, and Then he turns on the crowd like yeah, and Then he turns on the crowd Which is as soon as they start cheering him he turns on these is knock it off Go on back to Canada son cuz the only person you could possibly beat is your wrinkled up old man in his little old basement Wolf yeah, and then Austin puts over his troubles And he says you know that the Commissioner gorilla monsoon told him there would be no match for Austin because

Sid was home with a concussion as Far as gorilla monsoon goes I got a big bunch of bananas and I can tell you where to stick each and every one Of them and then he calls out the undertaker What okay cuz he's red fucking hot and Can't be on the mic You really can't and this shows the power of having the last word Brett never got the last word and he he he never got to have the last word by winning his matches and Him winning matches didn't matter to the audience anymore because Stone Cold is always coming back to antagonize him more right

Now gorilla monsoon again is the kayfabe president of the WWF coming back to antagonize him more. Right. Now, Gorilla Monsoon, again, is the kayfabe president of the WWF. He shared his feelings about Bret Hart and hoped that he could, he hoped that Bret could hear and accept Gorilla's invitation. So he's backstage. And he called Austin's victory

at the Royal Rumble a travesty. So, you know, but he then says, however, quote, however, if he thinks for one moment that that tainted victory entitles him to a crack at the WWF title at WrestleMania, he's got another thing coming. Now remember, whoever wins the Royal Rumble gets a shot at the title at Mania. Right. Monsoon says no, you don't get that.

But he also has said, like, look, in fairness, like, I can't undo the referee's decision. Those are final, which is an interesting tact to take. Yeah. As incompetent as the referees are, we have to hold by their decision because K-Faith. But so he says that, but he's like, and at the same time, though, As incompetent as the referees are, we have to hold by their decision because K-Fabe. So he says that, but he's like, and at the same time though, you don't get that title shot anymore.

I can take that away. I just can't take away the victory. So it'll be a victory in the book, but we all know you cheated and all this kind of stuff, right? Okay. All right. Then Monsoon put together a four-man elimination match for the number one contendership for the title at WrestleMania.

It consisted of Undertaker and Vader. You remember those were the last two that were eliminated by Steve Austin. Bret Hart for the same reason and Steve Austin. So the last four guys that were in the Royal Rumble, they're gonna be in this four-man elimination match, the winner of which will go on to get a title shot at WrestleMania. Right, and two of them are like solid monsters. Yes, yes. And then the other one is Bret Hart, who keeps winning, and the other one is Steve Austin,

who keeps beating everybody too, except for Bret. And then Gorilla Monsoon says, and the winner of that match, that very unique match, will unquestionably face whoever the reigning champion at WrestleMania 13 is. Remember, Sid's home with a concussion, so it's gonna probably be Sid, but it might be someone else.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Now Austin came out to respond to that immediately. He says, quote, I don't guess you heard what Bret Hart said son, you can't have a four-way match because Bret the Hitman Hart just walked out. It can't happen. And he says, can't. Notice that he wasn't arguing for why he should keep his contendership. Well, no. Just why Bret shouldn't be included.

Yeah. That's not about winning the belt. It's about making Brett miserable because he already learned he can't beat Brett. Yeah. That's not his goal. Can't win the popular vote. You better try to game the electoral college, right? Anyway, he says, quote, there ain't no way I should be in this match. I threw 19 I threw 20 99 Jesus I threw 29 pieces of trash over the top rope and he said he'd still do the elimination match but that he would beat up girl, but then he would come out and beat up Gorilla Monsoon and Then he got in gorilla's face to to threaten him now Gorilla Monsoon

To this point has been touched exactly once since he retired in like 82 The one time he got touched was when Vader attacked him two years earlier and Hospitalized him kayfabe Hospitalized him to put over Vader as a fucking monster. Okay touching gorilla is not allowed fucking monster. Okay. Touching Gorilla is not allowed at all. Yeah. You know, just like that's how sacrosanct Gorilla Monsoon was in the WWF. It really carried well. So with Austin's getting in his face, it's like, oh my god. Now he's getting in Gorilla's face to threaten him. By the way, the position in front or right before you go through the curtain to come out to the ring, that position was called the gorilla

position because it's named after gorilla monsoon because that's where he would always sit to watch the matches and and encourage people as right before they went through give them last well Yeah, so it's called the gorilla position So that's that's a big dude. This is how big a presence this guy Yeah, it's the influence that he had and now it's just called gorilla So when you hear about wrestlers, you know sitting in gorilla that's what they're talking about So when you hear about wrestlers, you know, sitting in Gorilla, that's what they're talking about

That's that's amazing. Yeah, so when I talk about gorilla like my brain is like wait what but yeah, and I wrote this So okay, so he gets in gorilla monsoon's face and guess who comes back through the crowd as they were going to break Red heart. Yes, and he shout. Hey, I accept but we don't need to wait till February let's do it right now. He and Bret or he and Austin start brawling in the aisle to a brutal pace with officials going all over the place trying to break it up. Bret threw Austin's head into the stairs as they went to commercial. Oh shit. When they came back from commercial, they're still brawling at ringside. Oh damn. And then the Undertaker comes down the ramp

to make his entrance, and Bret stood in his way in the aisle. So then the Undertaker slugged Bret and the two of them briefly brawled. And then the officials finally got Brett out of there. Taker then went after Austin because they had a match. They had a very good match, by the way, and right as they were going to commercial,

guess who was brawling in the back with Vader? Oh shit, Brett, really? Brett's going full Austin, right? Wait, wait, okay. Like he's brawling'm fucking everywhere he's attacking everybody everywhere who had been doing that since before November yeah okay right stare into the abyss the abyss stares back you become the abyss now this is a different wrestling so yeah but but so uh like I'm sorry I'm just

trying to imagine the image of anybody Brawling with Vader well, that's the thing Vader has been weakened over the last year and a half Okay, and and remember Austin it took it to Vader a couple of matches already right right yeah Yeah, you know so monster that he is he is now beatable by guys like Brett and Austin Okay. Yeah, right. So Brett sprawling with Vader in the back Taker and Austin are having a good match Vader then comes down to interfere with the match and then Brett comes down as well Boston tries to escape Brett runs and brings him back to the ring and raw ended with all four of them brawling hard in the ring What a way to set up a four-man elimination match

Holy shit. Yeah Like like they just they just said all right nuts and that's raw for tonight Good night as the four of them are like beating shit out of each other. Yeah, we can't contain this folks We'll let you know how it goes next week You That's the night after Royal Rumble holy shit Yeah, now remember WrestleMania is two months away, right now. Oh fuck. How are you gonna maintain that? Oh, that's the thing. You got these four guys now. I haven't even talked about Sid who was home with a concussion

Yeah, so we've got him off. Yeah home with a concussion, right? Right? Yeah, and I'm sure they're somewhere in the wings there Thank you for noticing. Yes. Yeah, Sean's not there, right? Yeah So on the following raw January 27th 1997 Vince McMahon tells Shawn Michaels in in an interview that if Shawn defeats Sid in February He's gonna have to face one of those four guys in the elimination match Shawn also spoke to the fact that there's no good guys anymore in the WWF and That if being back it yeah, and if being bad made him champion, he's gonna have to continue to be bad.

Okay. Because remember, Sean's the champ now. Yeah. Right? So they're all going after Sean's belt, but Sean's not really being mentioned. Sean is now reinserted into things. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. But so, so Sid technically is the champ no no no no no Sid was home with a concussion Sean beat him at the Royal Rumble oh yeah all right got it and got the title back remember Sid won it at Survivor Series right right right okay kept it and then Sean beat him in January all right so Sean's got the championship and he's out there and he I mean He looks rough like it's not a good time in Sean's life, but he says There's no good guys anymore

And if being bad is what made me champion then I'm gonna have to continue to be bad to keep it and then agreed with him, so now You don't have any good guys. You don't have any here. There's agreed with him. So now you don't have any good guys. You don't have any heroes. No faces anymore. Oh, everybody's some shade of heel, which I think that that has a short shelf life. But I prefer my morality plays. So now for a growing segment of the population, it's no longer about

governance or working toward a common goal. It's about projecting your worst urges onto those that you deem your enemies, not just opponents, enemies, and then working to seize power in order to prevent them from doing the thing that you projected onto them in the first place. Okay. So that's okay. That's that's this is a question that like, since we started recording tonight has been occurring to me. So we're talking about the the repeating theme with all of this is frustration. Yes, it's it's a Revement I would even say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Brett's frustration about, you know, how he how he lost his title before he went on his hiatus and now, you know, frustration with the way that he's been treated since he came back.

And he was remembered. It's a legitimate grievance that he has. He won a 60 minute Iron Man match, and then extended it. new rule. What the fuck? Yeah, what the hell? Yeah, right and then and then and Austin is Frustrated because Everybody has been screwing him out of what he deserves Right, so he's gonna take it out all on Brian So he's gonna take it all out on Brett because Brett's the avatar of that system. Yes So now here's the deal. The question for me arises in when we talk about the fan reaction to this and when you then take it and you make the statement that you just made about the parallel in, you know, politics. Is this a, like, are we, are we saying that this level of like generalized frustration was something going on within the call it white working

class population as a whole or are we looking at the population of people who are watching wrestling and their frustration as a conservative thing. So that makes sense. I understand what you're saying. I would say this. OK. The economy, while it's getting better. Yeah. Doesn't necessarily mean that that rising tide is lifting all ships. Yeah. So I think everybody has some layer of I've been left out. Some level of agreement

White people are expressing it more readily because it's new to them Okay, I would say that it's not my point is kind of that wrestling reflects society doesn't Just reflect its audience, right? Okay. So the mass appeal that wrestling has is still only with a certain segment of the population Yes, right that being said everybody's feeling it Remember like I mean we are Just a few months away from Ross cheating on Rachel while they were on a break a very divisive topic no, and I know that sounds funny, but I happen to think that because they were on a break, it's not cheating. I also happen to think that she has every right to not want to take

him back anyway. I also happen to think he was a really awful boyfriend, but people have strong opinions about whether or not they were on a break and if that matters Yeah, they genuinely do it's like one of those very yes oddly defining things um Now that's that's going a little far afield. I think that the culture has been infused with frustration I think that with Clinton winning the first time, and then the new gingrichification of the House of Reps, with the campaign that Dole ran and lost with,

and did not get through to a lot of his followers, remember how upset they were, they weren't the only ones who felt left out. You will remember the crime bill. You will remember Anita Hill getting screwed over. You will remember, there were plenty of things that were happening to queer folk, to people of color, to black folks specifically, to native folks,

all of these things definitely lead to an increase in the overall aggregate frustration, despite all the signs of economic success. Because as it turns out, that's not the only fucking marker for a healthy society. It's not just the economy, stupid. And I think that it just the economy stupid Yeah, and I think that the it's the economy stupid Took the narrative into a direction that commodified all of us and nobody had the vocabulary not nobody

So many people didn't have the vocabulary to say why that was a problem for them. They just had the frustration why that was a problem for them. They just had the frustration. Okay. All right. So that's fair. All right. Cool. Cool. Now recall also that in 1996 Rush Limbaugh was really riding a high tide speaking of conservative frustration. Fuck that guy. Fuck that. I know when I was like culturally not supposed to speak of the dead. Oh, I'm fine. You feel free to let me do it for you because that way you have fewer Hell Marys to say. Feel free to let me do it for you because that way you have fewer Hail Marys to say. Go ahead. Yeah.

Go ahead. He had found and widened a niche for white conservative men who felt left out and left behind. Clear Channel was starting to gobble up littler stations due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which led to a greater national syndication of specific voices. Reagan had already fucked with the fairness doctrine, and so now we are deregulating the corporations and the things add together. It's a synergy bonus of shitty.

And so- Of crap. Yes, a synergy bonus of bullshit. Yes. Yeah, those those specific voices traded on dissatisfaction and frustration at the way things were going Conservatives were mad because they were losing the culture war Queers getting rights. God damn schools not getting to segregate anymore. God damn it women

Getting to actually file charges of rape against their spouses. It's tough out here for a white man. The fabric of society is falling apart. At the same time, everyone who's not conservative is not necessarily on the front of the train of this juggernaut of it's the economy, stupid. Right. Clinton was really good at making corporate people happy, conservative people angry,

which made more money for corporate people, and kind of ignoring a large chunk of people. He got plenty done. I'm not gonna shit on his ability and his effectiveness to get policies through. But the cost of those things was the disaffectation of a lot of folks. Well, I mean, to this day, in progressive circles, people spit, when you mentioned his name, you know, because of, because of the crime bill, because of, you know, uh, the, the, you know, welfare reform and all the stuff he did, you know, in his, in his second, you know, the, the huge shift rightward, uh, in his, in his second term, right?

Was it a second term? Was it midway into his first term? I'm trying to remember, but you know, remember But you know his his quote unquote third way, you know tactics of Seizing the middle. Yeah You know and and thus shifting the Democratic Party rightward which then right force the Republicans to shift even further Fucking right which Tony Blair did too like yeah. Oh, yeah That needs your job. So yeah, it was it was a thing. It was a thing

Everybody was doing at the time You know because that's what you do in in the beginning of late-stage capitalism Well, I think okay so so to speak to what you're talking about. Yeah, Clinton was really good at vocally supporting social trending toward progressive things, and really good at making centrist policy that leaned rightward. Yeah. So the culture war, the conservatives were 100% right

to say that they were losing the culture war because they were And I think that has to do with clinton endorsing things like that Oh, yeah for sure um And and then and then economically right going very centrist and frankly hurting a lot of people who

Socially were finding more acceptance in mainstream America Yeah, and at the same, you know, it's kind of like um, you know TV went far more progressive under Clinton He didn't have any control over that Yeah policies that he enacted Some of them were the economic policies that he enacted were very liberalizing, but I would not say that they were progressive. No, no. What I'm remembering as you and I are talking about this is my very first full-time teaching gig, contract teaching gig that I only had for one year. I was in a county in a rural part of Northern California. And I was there with a whole bunch of other first year teachers. And one of my fellow newbies gave me a very well stated and very well put together explanation of yes, I'm a Democrat.

Yes, this is in 2000. Yes, I fully intend to vote for Al Gore, but I'm not a fan of Bill Clinton. And here's why. And a big part of it was, you know, you know, Gore is writing on the coattails of, you know, the Clinton administration created all these jobs, you know, and thousands of these are these are bullshit jobs. You know, these are, yeah, these are these are low paying, you know, service sector, you know, they're bullshit jobs. And you know, this, that, and the other thing economically, this is all, you know this that the other thing economically this is all you know this this is not this is not great From from the perspective where I'm coming from but by the way, you know

My attitude is that it's still better than you know, the other guy Yeah, you know And and for me at the time that was very eye-opening And so I'm remembering that conversation the whole time that we're talking about all of this economic stuff in 97 mm-hmm which is you know of course three years before by you know past his prologue as it were and so yeah so that's kind of kind of where my head's at when I'm what I'm making when I'm talking about what I'm talking about, but sure. Yeah So back to the radio you have a lot of similar voices

Because fairness doctrine has been weakened because corporations are gaining more and more and gobbling up more and more Nobody's trust busting as much And so these voices are trading on dissatisfaction and frustration at the loss of the culture war specifically. No longer policy wonk stuff, right? The feeling that it didn't matter what one did, they would still lose, was something that they traded on on the radio. And there were other voices too besides Rush Limbaugh. There were lifestyle gurus who gave such men a similar pillow to lay their heads, like Dr. Laura or Art Bell, folks were finding ways to stoke their frustrations to to be the voice of anger and frustration whether you are yelling at people who called in for being stupid or whether you are platforming people who are angry at chemtrails it doesn't

matter. Okay. I was like, you know, you mentioned Art Bell and I'm like, aren't the aliens in like Skinwalker Ranch? Conspiracy shit. Okay. Conspiracy shit. We are disaffected, nobody knows what's really going on. It's all coming at us.

Yeah, okay. And yeah, and so folks are finding ways to, they're no longer solving their frustrations, they're listening to three-hour blocks of frustration, putting more strokes in their engine on frustration, and then making their peace with, it's never gonna get better, so why bother following the rules?

So conservatism, I think honestly, you could kind of stop calling it that for some of these people because they're not about social order anymore. They're about their grievances. Mm-hmm. So in wrestling, the former greatest champion, the firebrand, the current champion, were all saying the same things. All three of these guys. Rules don't matter as much as success. champion, we're all saying the same things. All three of these guys. Rules don't matter as much as success.

And each of them defines success differently. OK, Brett, Brett, define success is getting the belt. Sean defined success as staying on top and Austin defined success as whatever the fuck he wants at that moment if it hurts people. Right. They're all saying being the bad person person is what's gonna get me what I want and the rules don't matter. Okay. Now Sean cuts a promo with Vince, cause remember this all goes back to Sean's, you know, I

guess I gotta be bad. Right. And he says, and this is kind of an interesting thing, Sean starts kind of pushing this, I'm not perfect, because Brett was perfect. Brett was the excellence of execution. Sean is this incredible show-stopping, iconic star, but it's known the troubles that he has outside the ring.

And Sean says, quote, I'm as human as the day is long. We've got Bret Hart who isn't happy with me, and that's fine. We've got Steve Austin who isn't happy with anybody. We've got The Undertaker who believe me, if you bring out the monster in him, it's the scariest thing alive. And you've got Vader, tons of fun and tons of a wrecking machine. Now, just real quick, he's putting everybody over. thing alive and you've got Vader tons of fun and tons of a wrecking machine. Now just real quick he's putting everybody over he is pointing out how awesome each

of them is but he's also you know he's the one who's on top right so then he says the question is is it all about this? Yes, it is. This right here. And he pats the WWE title, or the WWF title. So he's talking about the belt, and he says, this right here, the World Wrestling Federation Championship brings out either the very best in all of us,

or it brings out the very worst. And lately, it is bringing out the very best in all of us or it brings out the very worst. And lately it is bringing out the very worst in WWF superstars. But if being bad is what's going to make me great, then being bad is what I'll be. And being bad is where I'm at. And being the World Wrestling Federation champion is where I want to stay. So it's. It's it's's Everybody's gray. Everybody's gray. There is no good guy anymore. And look at why it's honestly It's the knock-on effect of having one person Decides that they're not going to play by the rules because their agreement matters more than anyone else's oh

Yeah, well the moment the moment that happens the the social con everybody has to look at the social contract to be like Well, why are we following this fucking thing exactly and and you saw that in Brett through this whole time? Vince affirmed that even though it brought out the worst attitudes, it still brought out the best competition. So... How social Darwinist is that shit? Like, my god. So, what occurs to me is when each of these guys, you said that, you know, each one of them has a different definition of like, you know, what they want, right? Right. Um, and what, what winning means to them.

It's also interesting to me that like being bad, cause Shawn Michaels uses that word, you know, bad four or five times there in that, in that whole tirade. And the, four or five times there in that in that whole tirade and The the definition of bad also kind of varies between them Yeah, Sean Shawn Michaels talking about being bad You know everybody watching that knew the subtext of like well, you know Sean Michaels being a bad boy Right it posing for playgirl

upsetting people yeah being being you know, socially unacceptable and Degenerate yeah kind of a degenerate. There you go You know Brett being bad means you know, uh, brett being bad means, you know what? I'm, I'm not, I'm not going to try to be the good guy anymore. Right. You know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, pick fights and do, do what these other guys are doing because it's working for them and God damn it. I'm going to get what I've earned, but it's also reactive.

Yeah, it's reactive. And then and then bad air quotes for Steve Austin has always been actually being no shit a heel. Yeah, and rejecting all of that social contract you're talking about. Yeah. And and like, um, there's there's distinction kind of without difference Yeah, and And I just I find that interesting too, because you know if if

That interview had been with Stone Cold The word bad might not even have been the way that he described it Well, and and you know, this is they brought out Sean first They're going to bring out other people This this is a long ass interview So here's an interesting thing that happens the wrestling show is more about who's saying what than it is about the competition in the ring That becomes a punctuation instead of the main sentence. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Now at that point, by the way, after he affirmed that, Vince then summoned Brett to come out to the ring. So Brett comes out, this time he's

got his music, Sean goes to shake his hand, holds his hand out and Brett refused. And then Brett grabbed the mic from Vince. Okay. And he tells Sean in no uncertain terms, he says whatever you got to do to walk out with the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt for WrestleMania, do it because you are the only one I want to beat. And then he put over the match. He said that he wanted Sean healthy. He wanted him to make sure that he was 100 hundred percent quote I want you to know that I'll be rooting for you all the way okay he wanted Sean at mania period which is interesting because you're gonna see this happen for Austin after his feud with Brett stops, eventually,

you're gonna see Austin kind of have the same attitude toward Owen when he's going after the Intercontinental title. Like he, Austin will straight up attack other people to keep the belt on Owen so that when he beats Owen, he gets his title too. Like there's an extra nasty to it. And it comes out of what Sean's being told by Brett. It comes out of what Brett's saying to Sean rather.

So then Vince brought out the Undertaker, who hardly ever spoke, because he doesn't have a manager with him anymore. And Undertaker addressed Hitman and said that he had taker's respect. Okay. So, you know, hitman, you've, you've, you and I have gone up and down these roads, blah, blah, blah. And you have my respect. And then taker says, but I'm getting sick and tired of how you've been screwed out of the world of how you've been screwed out of the world wrestling federation title. If you want to talk about screwed, you look at my history.

You look back at last year's Royal Rumble. So there's more and more grievances being aired, more frustration. Again, no action in the ring other than brawls that spill into the ring. But at this point, everybody's just talking, talking, talking, frustration, frustration frustration frustration. That's why I talked about the radio Everyone was using their grievances to justify why they deserved the title and Vince kept trying to put over the fact that they were All over looking the former champ psycho said Nobody cared Kind of groove on the fact that like Sid is a

non-entity. Yes. At this point like nobody gives a shit about Sid anymore. So then Austin comes out from the back and JR brought him Jim Ross brought him a mic and Austin stayed in the aisle instead and he says I may be the toughest SOB in the WWF but I recognize an ambush when I see it. From where I stand right now, I see three crybabies and one little blue boy or one little boy blue. You all sit there and piss and moan about everything you want to do. And then he put over the four way match as being a no disqualification match, which was quote, right down my alley. Then he turned to walk down the, uh,

down to the back, but then Vader was there and then Austin turns and says on second thought I'll whoop your asses right now and then he runs to the ring and starts fighting them all but then he backed down and he starts jawjacking at Vader like who's you know closing the distance right right of course that's gonna set up a match between Vader and Austin on February 3rd at RAW okay all right so Austin and Vader getting each other's faces and immediately guess who comes down to ambush Austin and beat the brakes off of him I don't know. At this point. Red Heart.

Okay. That's some healed shit. So he has embraced the healness. Yeah, but he's still, you know, so it's just that everybody's sliding past each other. Like there's this spectrum of gray. So he's beating the brakes off of Austin until Vader starts attacking Brett. So then the officials come down and they mob Brett to get him out of the ring.

And then Austin ran around the ring to attack Brett on his way out. By the way, this particular match at Raw is in Toronto, Canada. Austin was absolutely the tough and dominant face for the opening of the match once it actually started, because by this point, Austin wasn't doing any technical wrestling anymore either. He was only brawling, only punchy kicky. And he was out brawling the Rocky Mountain mastodon

known as Vader Austin's toughness like now we're seeing Vader being to make other people right Austin also starts flipping off Vader between moves midway through the match. This is kind of a newish thing Then Austin ends up stunning the referee and he and Vader keep fighting outside. Yes doesn't matter what the victory is I'm gonna kick Vader's ass, right? Okay After later on in the in the show Shawn Michaels came out to a pretty good pop in Toronto Well, yeah, okay. Here's the thing anytime Shawn goes to Canada after November of 97. Yeah straight booze

reap Sean goes to Canada after November of 97. Yeah straight booze read Scrooge okay Sean okay, yeah, so So Shawn Michaels comes out to a pretty good pop in Toronto at this point. He poses for the whole audience And while he's saying that while he's doing that Jim Ross is saying quote. He is the man He is the measuring stick whether you like him or you don't, his greatest years are all still ahead of him. OK, all right.

Now, once the cheers died down in Toronto, the crowd split immediately. And as many people were booing Shawn Michaels as were cheering him. Vince starts the interview of Shawn reviewing that the championship kept bringing out the evil in everyone. Like it's the fucking precious now. Yeah, the ring, right?

And that's the thing. If you look at the way the party that was not in the White House started talking about the Democrats holding on to it, and the soaring rhetoric about culture wars, the growing degradation in the country, etc. It's an easy way to shift the narrative so that the next election, whatever tactics are employed to gain power, are validated because it's been established that the seat of power brings out the worst in people to compete to see who gained the Oval Office next. It wasn't about wrestling. It wasn't about ability. It wasn't about wrestling. It wasn't about ability. It wasn't about governance or a true vision

for the best ways to make the country a better place for everyone. It was about grabbing the power away from the evil that held it. Right. And... And it's remained that way a Ever since ever since yeah So well, it's One group has always used that tactic ever since yes. Yes. Yes

Fair that group has only ever been popularly elected once in like 30 years, but you know if Yeah, so Sean says during his interview he says had you asked me six eight months a year ago which by the way a year ago is just before the WrestleMania where he won the Iron Man match right I would have told you that this belt represents everything that is good in the world wrestling Federation now things are a little bit different." And then he went on to point out that Sid was exactly right. Quote, this belt has brought out the worst in some of the World Wrestling Federation superstars and to be perfectly honest I am one of

them. So just leaning in. Shawn is riding the wave of, yeah, I'm bad, but I'm honest about it, so it's okay. And that's his approach. I'm bad, but I'm honest about it, so it's fine. Austin's is, I'm bad, because I'm pissed off. And Brett's is, I'm bad, because this is the only way that I can get anything done. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good way of summar anything done. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good good way of summarizing it.

Yeah. So Sean's is a villainous populism. Now because holding the belt mattered not being good, right? Yeah. And this enabled him to set a narrative wherein he got to attack anyone who claimed to be good Dirtying all of them with the same shit splatters Yeah, okay, and I mean think about What we've seen with populism in the last eight ten years or all in the end of both sides ism

Like that's exactly right constantly been used by And the both sides-ism. That's exactly right. Cons is constantly been used by the right, particularly since 2016. Yes. And I would say the both sides-ism is just one tactic that's used in concert with we're projecting everything we want to do onto them. So that's why it's justified why we do what we want to do. And then when they finally

do punch you back in the nose once, it's like, see, violence on both sides. And it's like, that's, I mean, honestly, this is reminiscent of negotiations with my union. You will remember I had a superintendent a while back He had more than 24. I think it's somewhere like 26 grievances or no labor Where they're in labor labor action complaints? Yeah at our in our state. It's like Wow, like if you get one in a year You are shamed into fucking doing better. He got 26 in like four years.

Yeah, I mean, in any other district, anywhere in California. Labor Relations Board complaint, that's what it's called. Right, right, right. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, if you get one of those it's it's like okay, dude There's a review you are on probation. Oh your role you're in big trouble. Yeah, and he you're huh? Yeah, yeah, so he he was looking to shoot the moon Yeah, hey clearly um what I love and what I mean about all this is that at one point

He wasn't honoring the contract. And then he was saying, you're supposed to come to bargain at the table for the next contract. And we say, what's the point if you're not going to, if you're not going to uphold the contract, if you're not going to enforce the original, what's the point of bargaining a new one? Why, why are we doing this? Right. So, so that was our stance. He then wrote a complaint to the labor relations board and he won. Why are we doing this? Right. So that was our stance. He then wrote a complaint to the Labor Relations Board

and he won because we weren't coming to the table. Right. And so then he was able to do this. See? This is just a tactic they've been using the whole time. They've got dirt under their nails too. And it completely sanitized him because now he wasn't 26 and 0, he was 26 and 1,

or whatever his number was. Yeah, yeah. And it's like- But because the union had quote unquote sunk to his level, on the one occasion, there's not any distinction anymore. Right. You know what, asshole, fuck you. Your distinction's just partisan. So clearly you're just picking your side and hey if that's how you want to do it. I guess that's okay

I guess we're all gonna do it this way. That's what's happening in wrestling in 1997 Yeah, and certain I just I need to get this off my chest as well in regard to the whole thing with your union certain Newspaper columnists in our town need to shut the fuck up and retire. Go back to talking about sports asshole. Pretty sure he did. Yeah, well, he should have done it sooner. I agree. And I, fucker. Yeah.

Fuck that guy. Now, Sean then says, quote, To comment on this partisan crowd, turnabout is fair play, I believe. I got my jollies in San Antonio, and all the people of Canada have a chance to share their appreciation for their guy, Bret Hart. And if that's what they want to do, that's quite all right with me. I've won the most popular contests enough times

that I don't worry about being popular anymore. I worry about being number one, and on and on and on he goes. But then quote, because that's what these people have brought out of the heartbreak kid which is just like Again, if you're a heel you're supposed to have something that you believe in to make you right heels have to write to be a good Yeah, you have to be right. Yeah, but the shit that he's saying is

Absolutely that kind of sanitizing You know reframing of why he's getting booed. Yeah, and by the way, just any time I hear anybody in any context use the phrase, these people, like that, you know, after having had the Overton window shift far enough, like, under me, now I'm really sensitive to these people, those people, like, which people are we talking about here? He's talking about Canadian fans specifically. Okay. Yeah, because he's in Toronto and he's talking about their partisanship and he's like, look,

I get it, you're booing me because you about their partisanship and he's like look I get it You're booing me because you love Bret Hart and it's like no no, they're booing you Because you're an asshole your heel like you're doing heel shit. It's like well, you know, you guys love your Bret Hart You know when we're in San Antonio, I wasn't getting booed. It's like that was your hometown like Again, yeah, your reef is and he's masterfully reframing this. You can't deny the talent here. And then Vince asked Sean to comment on what Sean had to say to respond to Brett's criticisms of him.

And Sean said, quote, when you've got this, points to the title. And you're honest. People tend to dislike that. And then he likened himself to Muhammad Ali because puffery Quote Brett you can be the best there is the best there was and the best there ever will be if that's what you want to call yourself One thing you will not call yourself right now is a World Wrestling Federation champion now That's a good fucking promo that is that's yeah, but it's also that like that kind of reframing that pisses me off the most Well, you can say you're right. You can have your facts and I can have mine, you know, it's like oh

Okay, I mean like in this case there is actually a fact Yeah, all of it. Yeah, yeah, which which like the the framing device Sucks shit, but right, you know at least here it's it's it's semi legitimate because yeah and is a fact it's just I've got the title you call yourself whatever you want this is what matters and frankly this is how you measure yourself like that's a great promo work it really is yeah yeah yeah yeah and actually Brett comes out after that and he disputes things he says when I think of all the things that I've said about you,

I think you've capped it best yourself when you called yourself a degenerate. And you may pride yourself on being able to be a complete and total jackass. Huge pop in Toronto. But the truth of the matter is we don't have to like it. As far as I'm concerned, you're nothing but a punk. You can stop me anytime you want to Sean Michaels then grabbed the mic and responded at that Austin slid into the ring and beat the shit out of Brett and then they brawled out to the ringside area

Then Sid came down to confront Sean Okay, Sid finally, you know showing up like I think I think whatever softball team he was on they finished their playoffs or something nice That's actually true though. Like he read he would regularly take time off for softball Okay, yeah cool so bully for him I suppose Yeah, yeah now when they came back from the break Austin and Sid had been escorted to the back Sean laid down the belt on the ring between himself and Brett so they get back to that The two of them continue having words back and forth and when Sean went to pick up the belt again Brett put his foot on the belt to stop Sean

Really cool pantomime. Yeah, Brett then went to grab it and hand it to Sean. And then he dropped it on the canvas between them. Wow. So Brett's healing it up now then Brett. Brett does the neck. The next thing that Brett does.

Lips off Sean to his face. The excellence of execution... Austin does. Yeah. Roast a finger. Yes. So... There are no faces at the top in the WWF at this point. There are no faces at the top in the WWF at this point. You have Psycho Sid, who people love, but he does heal shit. You have Brett, who's doing heal shit, even though he's supposed to be a good guy

and he's got a legit complaint. He's a heal now. Sean, heal shit. Vader, monster heal. Austin, clearly a heal. So it's just different shades of heal that people like, but there's no faces. And so it's all about the title, but it's not about the morality play. It was about the results, not the righteousness. And the entire second term of Bill Clinton was about Republicans trying to get rid of

him by any means necessary. The natural inclination of most people, reasonable people at the time, is to say that, well, it must have been then, it must have then been about Clinton trying to hold onto power too. But honestly, that wasn't true. His second term was beset by all of those efforts, but his whole second term was also

where the actual GDP surplus happened. It was in his second term, in Clinton's second term, the percentage of our debt of the GDP fell from 47% down to 33%. That's fucking huge. Yeah. He also signed off on legislation that led to the Amber Alert system during his second term. He also tried to bring the U bring the US into the Kyoto Protocol, although the Senate just straight-up refused to ratify it because coal and blowjobs. Clinton then went on to strengthen the Department of the Interior. He increased public land conservation. He set up more access to non-interest or low-interest

monies to go to college for folks. He subsidized the internet for libraries and schools. He increased the NIH funding by over 50%. He increased sustainable housing through federally subsidized community development loans. Found ways for folks on social security to go back to work without losing their SSI benefits. Helped along the Good Friday Peace Agreement, bombed the shit out of Yugoslavia for 72 days as an effort to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo

without putting boots on the ground because he'd learned from Mogadishu, tried and failed to get Arafat and Barak to make peace in Israel and Palestine, tried to help the East Asian economy, tried to keep Russia afloat with help from NATO, of all things, and through both of his terms, he managed to unmoor the Democratic Party

from its coalition roots and make it more palatable to white men who'd end up refusing to support Democrats the following election anyway. Yeah. So he obviously did more than get just low jobs. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you have to to give if you're being intellectually honest, that's important caveat. If you're being intellectually

honest, you have to give Bill Clinton credit for getting a lot of shit done. Yeah. So he's not just trying to hold on to power. He's not Nixoning. No, no, no, no. Although I bet you speaking of an intellectually honest, I bet you if I went look back at Nixon's second term, I could come up with a list equally as effective. Yeah. Because he did do a lot of shit. He got yes. So he was very effective. It's a damn shame. He was lawful evil Like that, you know, yeah You know, it's like Hell Knights in in Pathfinder

Okay, they're they're like it's a whole thing in the the setting Golarion, the setting for Pathfinder is that there are these orders of essentially anti-paladins that are dedicated to various, you know, arch devils. And they're all awful evil. And like, you can be a player character member of one of these things. And like, they're, they're very effective

and and many of them are dedicated to doing things like, you know, reducing crime and and you know, protecting the unit, you know, maintaining order and getting getting all of this shit done. And it's like, okay, yeah, that's, that's great. But at the end of the day, they're dedicated to fucking arch devils. like yeah, you know, I understand you're you're trying to introduce some some ideas of moral complexity here, but um There are archdevils of infrastructure. Yeah Yeah, and they widen that highway. Yeah, but it does still go to hell. So, yeah, while they're getting there faster, time. Yeah, they're making great time, but they're also transporting like legal slaves.

Right. Now, what are the Mellaroos in that area? Cause it's the economy, stupid. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. All right. So on February 10th, 1997, at RAW, okay, there's six days away from the Chattanooga pay-per-view. This again, I love this.

WWF was getting really fucking hot, but they were still on their poor schedule. They were still on their like really destitute footing schedule. Like they didn't expect to get this hot. So they're still playing like again Chattanooga Chattanooga or like in a venue that has like 3,200 people like it's like they they are just Cooking along they're doing and and this would last for like a year by the way like because you schedule things so far out Yeah, yeah, right. Oh, it's so funny

So they're in there and you know the armory at you know, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Yeah Yeah, I mean there are a few steps up from that but not by much, you know Okay, and yet and yet they could have started filling arenas. Yeah, but they've already booked these you know So it's February 10th 1997 Like I said six days away from the pay-per-view to determine the number one competitor for the WrestleMania match, right? Austin wrestled the Vicious Heel.

He was absolutely the Vicious Heel. He kicked Sid in the balls, he flipped Sid off, got a huge Austin chant. Now again, this is in Chattanooga. Right. Austin then tried to hit Sid with the sharpshooter, which is Brett's move. Of course, a few minutes later,

Brett attacked Austin during the match, giving Austin the win via DQ. This is all in raw, right? Okay, yeah. Sid was pissed, so he took out the loss on Brett. And Austin got out of the ring to just like, cool, you're gonna beat down Brett. I'm down for that.

Brett then would come back to take on Vader in the main event. Undertaker would show up to cut a promo on the WWF saying that he's going to get his respect, which then gave Vader a chance to ambush Brett ahead of the match. Because Taker was distracting him. Then Austin came out and attacked Bret

while he was on the outside against Vader. Now at this point, when you see one of these guys, you see the other every fucking time. Where you see Austin, you know Bret's coming. Where you see Bret, you know Austin's coming. Bret hit some really cool moves in his match against Vader. He was dominant against Vader. Again, you could not have said that the year prior.

The year prior, Brett still would have won, but he was squeaked out of victory. It would have been a strategy thing. It would have been, you know, he took a beating until he could turn it, you know? Now, he's dominating Vader, and Vader's just kinda being used to put others over. He's not long for the company,

I think he's about another year out. Steve Austin showed up in the balcony of the crowd to distract, because this is a building that had a fucking balcony. Like, that's how small the venue was. And he distracted Brett, which then let Vader wallop him. And back then, like I said, this shows we're in much smaller venues.

So the match ended with Brett getting the win over Vader by pinfall. So Brett's still winning. Okay. Now on February 13th. So, oh boy. Oh dear, okay. I this is I'm scared. Yeah, this is ahead of the pay-per-view

Okay, okay. So pay-per-view is set to go off on February 16th Okay, every 13th Sean vacated the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight title. Wait, what? He vacated it. OK. It's known as the I've lost my smile speech. OK. So Sean comes down. Sean had a knee injury.

Knee injuries can be tricky. Right. They can also be easy to claim. OK. OK. So Sean swe be easy to claim. Okay. Okay. So, Sean swears up and down that he had a knee injury. But he also swears up and down like, look, I was popping pills back then, I was an asshole back then, and if my knee felt good one day, I would do shit on that knee, and then I'd pay for it the next night.

Okay. And so, to piss other people off, I would do shit with that knee, but I also knew I needed surgery. So he comes out. Vince is interviewing him, and basically he had gone to Vince and said, look, I talked to the doctor, my knee's fucked. I have to step away so that I have a chance at coming back. Now that means that the match at WrestleMania is in danger. Right. Right?

Because now you don't have a fucking champion. Yeah that's kind of a problem. Narratively that's not good. And what has been building this whole time since last WrestleMania But a match between Brett and Sean a rematch a rubber match to set up for the third match Right you remember Brett saying that he was on a plane next to Sean and told him Here's the long-term plan that I've sold to Vince. Yeah, Sean didn't like that plan So So he pulls a so he pulls a Hulk Hogan. This is what we're saying here. Yeah, kind of

This guy all right So on February 13th, Sean vacates the title gives his famous I lost my smile speech Vince put Sean over as the man who's wrestled more than anyone else ever which actually wasn't true during even this title reign at all um Brett behind the scenes is pissed he's pissed by the announcement he's pissed by how they treated him according to Brett in his autobiography slash memoir he said quote Taker looked at me like this was all bullshit and said, I'll believe it when I see the scar.

The little fucker doesn't want to drop the belt. Taker, Sid and I were headed down the hallway to Vince's office. Sean and Hunter, Pat, JR and Briscoe were already there when we arrived. Now just real quick, Hunter is Hunter Hearst Elmsley, also known as Triple H nowadays. Right. Pat is Pat Patterson. Briscoe is Gerald Briscoe. These two guys are like two of the most longevity based veterans in the WWF. They're Vince's right and left hand men in many ways.

Pat Patterson is the inventor of the Royal Rumble. Okay. Like these are important movers and shakers. So these are big time, to kind of borrow a term, these are kind of big time writers room guys. Yeah, these are the capital regime. These are architects, okay. Yeah, yeah.

All right. So then Brett in his autobiography points out, quote, I'd worked a tag team match with Sean at the Meadowlands only three days before and there was nothing wrong with his knee he hadn't wrestled since I found myself agreeing with Taker I'll believe this bullshit when I see the scar so Sean now because this is not a Sean versus Brett episode I'm not gonna bother reading Sean's program or program or his promo because it's just basically about how he lost his smile and how he needs to go fix himself.

Okay. Okay. So the only times I brought Sean in was to highlight, you know, Brett going heel. And just the overall theme. So at the opening of the pay-per-view on February 16th, 1997, Steve Austin came out to rip Shawn for being a coward, but then he got interrupted by a promo video talking about how Austin has risen, which is kind of funny. When they came back to Austin in the ring, Undertaker showed up to confront

Austin saying that he'd made a mistake getting into this match. Now, midway through the pay-per-view, Steve Austin sat down for an interview in the locker room with Doc Hendricks, also known as Michael P.S. Hayes from the Freebirds, where Austin said it was all politics that kept him from the championship so far. Sound familiar? Yeah. Hmm. Anyhow, the match was a great match.

And by the way, since Sean vacated the title, the winner of this match would become the champion. Oh, OK. OK. Now, Brett said that there were no more excuses and it was time to basically put up or shut up. Now, as an added wrinkle to add to Brett's heel turn, he went to give his glasses to a kid at ringside, per the usual.

Then he looked that kid right in the eye the whole time and put the glasses on a kid nearby. Ooh. Talk about a heel twist to a face move. No kidding, man. Yeah. Now Brett and Austin went right at it. Vader ended up bleeding from a chair reversal. So he's bringing a chair

It gets knocked into him. There's lots of action outside the ring Austin threw the steps onto Vader at one point So, you know, it's not confining to the ring. It never has with Austin. The crowd was super into this match And everyone traded action back and forth. There's lots of used equipment at ringside And everyone traded action back and forth. There was lots of used equipment at ringside. Chairs, stairs, electric cables. Vader even used the sharpshooter on Brett outside at one point. Undertaker and, cause remember, it's a no DQ.

Undertaker and Brett Hart teamed up on Austin at one point even. And by the way, again, the stip was that a battle royal. So they changed the match several times. It was gonna be an elimination match. That means pinfall, submission, count out, no DQ, okay. Well now it was a battle royal style elimination. Okay.

So you could either do it that way or by pinfall or by submission so all the action outside Was fine because they didn't go over the top rope when they went over Right, right, right, right. They could go in and out all they wanted Brett first eliminates Austin but then then Austin comes back and attack Brett on the outside. Taker then eliminated Vader at this time and then Austin got in the ring and got tossed out by Brett again. Right. Austin then no no he gets he gets tossed out by by

Taker I'm sorry. Austin then tried to grab Brett and pull him out focusing again not on winning because he already doesn't have that chance, just on making life hard for Brett. Eventually, Austin is going after, or Taker is going after Austin for the umpteenth time, and Brett manages to clothesline Undertaker from behind, knocking him over the top rope, giving him the victory. All right.

Brett Hart is now the World Wrestling Federation heavyweight champion for the fourth time. Okay. Second only to Hulk Hogan. Wow. All right. Now, Bret does not get a chance to even celebrate this victory because guess who comes out right after to remind him that he has to face that person the next night on Raw Sean Michaels, no, he's got the he lost his smile Austin no, no, he doesn't have a go Sid Sid. Yeah fucking Sid. Yeah Come on now. Yeah, all right, so the next night February 17th

1997 the announcers announced that undertaker would be in the main event at WrestleMania 13 So he's gonna get a title match at WrestleMania 13 no matter what That means that night. We're gonna figure out if it's gonna be Sid or Brett Okay, so Because undertaker got fucked with by Austin the only way to make it fair to him is you get the main event match You're gonna yeah, all right all right all right Because was undertaker ever actually eliminated from the Royal Rumble if Austin had come back in to toss him out

Right okay, all right. This is really good intricate writing actually like Yeah So takers got that match. Okay. Okay. All right So it's February 17th. Uh, and and so before the match could even start between Brett and Sid start between Brett and Sid. Austin attacked Hart and then Sid attacked Austin and then Austin chop block Sid which is where you run your like your arm into the guys the back of the guy's knee. It looks really really bad it's actually a pretty safe move because then you're supposed to bend that way. Right. Now this causes an enormous delay in the match and the match was then postponed. Oh, shit.

What was hilarious was that in the locker room, Sid was livid about the attack and said that not even a broken leg could stop him from his destiny, which calls me to question why they delayed the match then. If he's... Yeah. So then they interviewed Brett after this, holding the title that he'd been after since his return in November and JR asked what he thought about Austin Interjecting himself in the match between Sid and Brett by injuring Sid's leg, right? Well, it just seems that every time I turn my back stone-cold sticks his nose into my business I guess I'd better get used to it

All I can do is focus on every battle and not and try not to let it Try not to worry about it Then he puts over his match against Sid and all the upcoming opponents that he'll face so he's doing the champion thing, right? He said at the end in response to Jerry Lawler's question quote You can only look out for number one If you stop looking out for number one, you start stepping on number two. And I'm not gonna let any of that happen. I am the best there is, et cetera, et cetera.

Right. So even in his victory, he's still doing the, I can only look out for me. I have to stay on top. I have to do what it takes. He's putting everybody over, like, these are gonna be hard. And he is facing it up.

He's going like You know tough opponents. I got to be ready for them. I got to do that, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but at the same time there's that That underlying thing. Yeah that that that Moral ambiguity. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta do what you got to do exactly And the reason you got to do what you got to do is because Austin won't stop JR then Jim Ross then redirected Brett to address the Undertaker being in the main event of WrestleMania and Austin and then Brett was like yeah bring it on because he's expecting to main event against the Undertaker and WrestleMania Now because he's like, yeah, I'm gonna be the champion, so Taker's gotta face me for the title, okay?

Now, they're about a month out from WrestleMania. Now, they eventually have the match between Brett and Sid, but on the way to the ring, Brett's walking to the ring for like the third fucking time, and guess who attacks him? Austin. Yes. And yeah beats Brett all to hell I think this is where he's beating him against like like one of those roll down doors out there like it looks really brutal Those things have a lot of give it's fine

But like it's just like you're getting into parts of the arena that we've never seen before So Sid then comes out and gets involved again. Gorilla Monsoon promised that the match is gonna happen tonight, but he's postponing it again. And then he takes a dig against WCW without naming them. He says, you know, like, not like other companies, we're gonna actually deliver on our promise. But it is gonna be postponed.

Now, interestingly, Vince was actually physically involved in this one trying to break them up. Kind of as the owner, you're ruining my main event kind of vibe. Okay. They interviewed Austin and Austin said that once HBK lost his smile, since he was the winner of the Royal Rumble, Austin, he should have been champion Instead of this four four-way elimination Which okay, which means he's ignoring the fact that he cheated like there's there's some heel shit going on there But because he's not gonna he's not glitz and glamour and marketable

He was being held down by the WWF and since that's so he's gonna tear through the WWF until he's champion. Until I win, I'm gonna do whatever it takes. Right. So finally they get the match going. Gee, Christmas, all right. Brett is, you know, the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. So the result is he knows that Sid has been shot blocked by

By Austin which means he's targeting Sid's leg and he actually does his figure four around the post for the first time ever in this match So, you know what a figure four looks like, right? vaguely, but yeah, so you basically You take one guy's leg and put it over that guy's other knee Okay, and then you trap that guy's ankle and you basically see how that makes it look like before and you push down on the knee And up on the ankle and you lever it against itself It's actually a really painful move. Yeah, it does sound like it. Yeah, good luck getting somebody in it what they're not willing

Yeah It does like it. Yeah, good luck getting somebody in it what they're not willing Yeah, so Brett had this idea of like I could do a figure four against the ring post and it would look amazing It would look vicious because there's the ring post there, but functionally it wouldn't actually hurt anybody Yeah, and so that's what he does right? That's the first time he ever does that Now during the match with Sid Steve Austin came out again through the crowd to interfere walk But Sid knocked him down and at the end when the referee was checking on Sid for submission while he's in Hart's sharpshooter Austin then nailed him with a chair Nailed Sid No him with a chair. Nailed Sid? No, Hart. Yeah. So the sharp shooter has you sitting on the

guys lower back, kind of, with their legs wrenched up between your arms. Crossed over each other, so you're putting a lot of strain on the quad. Which means you're facing north and they're facing south. So the referee is facing south asking sit if he wants to give up right? That's near the ropes Austin comes down and waffles him with the chair All right, okay referee doesn't see it um Sid then power bombed Bret Hart and won So I mean this is a dusty finish in some ways which is some lost cause shit so Brett has lost the title less than 24 hours so he came back

in November had this long treacherous arduous battle to get back to the championship kept getting it snaked away from him finally got it and the very next night the man who'd made his mission the entire time to make Brett's life hard cost him that same championship despite having been beaten by Brett three times since November. Yeah this is this is some profound lost cause shit. Like, wow. OK. And now Brett left for the next day for the European tour, which took him through the rest of the month. Right. And remember, Raw was often one off, one on in terms of live and taped. So they record the next week's show after they do the live show.

If you're an audience that goes to a live RAW, you're getting two shows worth of wrestling. It's pretty cool. So when the March 3rd paper, or not paper, March 3rd RAW 1997 comes along, Brett is no longer champion, and he's like, hey look, you give me a match where I'm not going against any of the top guys let me help make somebody there's this new

Intercontinental champion who's a third generation wrestler his name is Rocky Maivia oh shit okay cool so Brett takes him on and they're like, oh yeah Brett, we're gonna have you beat him. He's like, what's the fucking point to that? Like, let me get DQ'd or something. Let's let's schmazz it up. Let's make Rocky look good and everybody's really mad that, not everybody, but there was a faction of guys in the back who were mad that Brett wanted to put Rocky over because they were trying to hold him down. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah.

Who? Sean Triple H. OK. Yeah. Now, during a match with. Yeah. During a match between Sid and Mankind, they interviewed Steve Austin, who said that he was on the toilet and he was really mad that he had to travel coach. It's such great heel shit right there. It is. That's amazing. And then he says, and I love the fact that he's not, he's not like a, a rich heel. Right? No, this is, this is, I'm, I'm a working man heel. And by the way, this is a phone interview.

That's fucking brilliant. So he then says, quote, but that's not what made me sick. It's seeing Bret Hart whine and cry every time he gets on the WWF TV and it makes me sick to my stomach. If he ain't whining, he's quitting. If he ain't quitting, he's doing something else and it ain't nothing good.

Vince then says that they'll return to Austin to interview him later. And what's funny is that Honky Tonk man is, is because he's cousins with Jerry Lawler, actually, the King Jerry Lawler. And he's doing commentary. He kind of did guest commentary. And he actually took up for the conspiracy theory of Austin. And Vince asked straight up, well, couldn't you say the same thing is true about Bret Hart? Okay, so again, they're interchangeable Yeah, you know it comes down to preference and you know If it's just preference then it's just politics and and therefore anything goes because you do the same thing

Yeah Now they finally do get to interview Austin and during the actual interview Vince was pointing out that Austin's efforts all Seemed aimed at stopping Brett from getting to the championship and Vince after detailing it all asked. What is it with you? Yeah Love that question. Yeah, that's good. What if I can hear it in his voice, too? Yeah. Yeah Quote, this is Austin's answer. The only remorse that I got is that I didn't hit him harder with that steel chair.

Bret Hart runs around talking about how everybody's screwing him. Hell, for the past seven years I've been screwed and it's the same old song. How come when it's Shawn Michaels hurts his knee, you make a video out of him? How come when Shawn Michaels gets sick, you tell the world he's got the flu? Well, when I went to the final four, I was sick as a dog and I had blowed out and I had a blowed out knee Let me ask you a question. How many one-legged people could go 25 minutes with the three of the top wrestlers in the world? None. This is the first we've heard about him having a blowed out knee, isn't it?

Because a real man won't complain of these things Right Wow, so that's my excuse for just making shit up now Is like I wouldn't I wasn't gonna complain about it then but you know now that you're talking about all this shit I had a blowed-out knee. Wow That is some deep heel shit right there. It's also some deep 1990s Shit, he's been aggrieved a lot longer than the current situation He's upset that others got attention for suffering in a way that he's also suffered and he's using that as a pretext for why he

Did what he did? Wow, I know Wow, thank goodness. We learned from that. We didn't let that kind of populism take root in any way, shape, or form. You know, I knew, I knew the sarcasm was coming there. I knew that that was, yeah. Yeah. Thank goodness it didn't go anywhere. Yeah. Right? Fucking, yeah, right. Austin then continued, and tell me who this sounds like. As far as I'm concerned concerned I truly am the World Wrestling Federation champion Can't nobody tell me different not you or anybody

So he's unwilling to accept the results of a contest that he went into expecting to win and came out losing So so at some point like a couple of years later. Did he admit that well, you know, I lost by a whisker. No Okay, no, just curious. Yeah, you know For no like that line, right? Yeah randomly not asking for any kind of yeah. No So incidentally they had a match around a week or two earlier They being Bret and Austin earlier, they being Bret and Austin, and I could not find it. Or they had a match announced a week or two earlier that I couldn't find the match, I couldn't find the announcement. But essentially, the announcement was that Bret and Austin are going to have a submission match at WrestleMania. So to review.

Undertaker has a title shot at WrestleMania. Whoever the champion is. But now Brett and Austin have a submission match at WrestleMania. OK. Brett is about to wrestle Sid for the title. Again. In whose interest is it for Sid to keep the title?

Given that Brett has a guaranteed match against Austin. Oh, fuck, it's getting complicated. It is, but you see how cleverly intricate this is Yeah So if brett is no longer the champion and he's fighting against steve austin at wrestlemania

If he wins He's going to fight against steve austin at wrestlemania and that'll be then for the title right Right. So so brett going against Sid. If Sid wins, Brett is still wrestling against Steve Austin. And now the champion is going to have a match against the Undertaker. Okay, so Undertaker wants Sid to hold on to the title. Right. Even though he respects Brett. Yeah. Okay, all right. Yeah, all right Austin He's gonna want Brett to win because then

You know I'm gonna beat the hell out of Brett Hart and take his title Do they both show up to interfere in this fucking match? Well? Yeah, of course, okay? Jesus Christ, you know This is this is as complicated as feudal Japanese Feuds between between daimyo like Holy okay. Yeah, and I'm actually gonna leave it there Because we have a guy who's unwilling to accept the results of a contest that he went into and then lost right? Who's unwilling to accept the results of a contest that he went into and then lost right?

We have a further complication by the fact that they now have a match announced at WrestleMania Which is ultimately what all of these episodes have been aiming at yeah and so And what's interesting here is they have a submission match? Announced yeah, right has one submission hold that he does, the sharpshooter. Right. Steve Austin has been punching and kicking.

Yeah, he hasn't been doing any kind of submission or anything, yeah. Now what was interesting too is if you go back to their match at Survivor Series, it's actually clear that Austin had several submission moves in his repertoire. He had the million dollar dream. Yeah.

He had the Texas clover leaf, right? But because he turned into this brawler badass that he was and he played to those strengths Exactly. So now it's like what fuck are they doing a submission match? It's a really it's a really hard match to book to be honest Because you know what the fight the finish has to be which means you can't get any false pinfalls. You can't get any hopeful spots Yeah, and a submission is kind of a slow everything down at the end thing Yeah, yeah, so it's all tough So so yeah, there's some kind of a trick there

I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the trick. Oh, you'll see it when we talk about the match. Okay. So, yeah. Alright, so anything that you've gleaned so far? Mother puss bucket. True. the, uh, you know, the, the remarkable, as you put it, the intricacy of the, uh, structure of the narratives here. You know, when, when you look at it as a plot

arc, because I think for a lot of people who aren't wrestling fans, they look at a match And within a match there is an arc like there is there is a narrative, you know being told within that within that particular match But it's a it's an isolated Like island of conflict it is right, you know one or they don't they don't know the context that goes into it Yeah, this could be the blowoff This could be the second rematch, you know, it could be a number of things but yeah, all they see is that right? Yeah Yeah, and and and you know, they see the theatricality of it. They see the the heightened You know cartoonish and I don't mean that derogatorily, but the the

Exaggerated yeah, the grotesque Yeah, they see all of that, but they don't they don't Recognize and and until you and I started doing this podcast and I got you know a view behind the curtain in the gorilla Yeah, I didn't I didn't get a view from gorilla. You know, I didn't understand the level of OK, no, no, you need to understand. There's like four different plot lines that we're that we're looking at here.

There's, you know, six different feuds that we're that we're tracking and figuring out how to make all of them interact with each other. And, you know, the overarching, you know, a plot is this one, but we also have the B plot, the C plot, and like the Sigma plot, like, you know, running running the understanding of archetype that's, that's involved and, and the way in which they, uh, make all of that payoff in the Jungian, you know, uh know psyche. Yeah, I mean is Remarkable and and yeah, I will I will now defend wrestling as art To anybody who wants to try to argue differently. Yeah, Roland Barthé or Barth's He he had it down pretty well. Hey

Yeah, it is. It is a hell of a thing All right. So what are you going to tell folks to consume? I am very strongly going to recommend anybody who has the right kind of streaming subscription to go watch the just within the last year mini-series, limited run series of Shogun. Because that is one number one. It's incredibly well acted. It's a great updated adaptation of the novel that I think fixes some things from the novel and fixes an awful lot of stuff from the original 1979 mini-series. So I'm going to strongly recommend you go out and check that out and watch it. Warning, there are some points where it is pretty violent, but it's not for anybody under the age

of 12. But very highly recommended, recommended excellent show and what I'm gonna be talking about in our next series of episodes so unless of course I make those release first yeah I mean unless you do some kind of you know sorcery with with you know it depends on like what we just had and you know there is a rhyme to the reason there's yes You know, I try to think timeless. Yeah, indeed. There is true. There is that but You know and and if if that has happened then you've seen it and you can hear me Comment on it or you've already heard me comment on it and that'll that'll you know help you out with watching it. So

Anyway, that's my recommendation. How about you? I'm actually going to recommend a book by Ken Zimmerman Jr. He has written a lot of do you remember the the the George Hackenschmidt and Frank Dodge match? Okay. Yeah. He's written a lot of books from that era. And this one's called Double Crossing the Gold Dust Trio. And it's about Stanislaus Zabisco. Nice. And Ed Strangler Lewis and Billy Sando and Tuts Mont. And those were the gold dust trio and about how Stanislaus helped another promoter

double cross them. Yeah. I'm looking forward to reading it. I just got it today. So somebody feel free to read along with me. Yeah. Okay. It's, I'm looking forward to reading it. I just got it today. So. Nice. Somebody feel free to read along with me. All right.

But yeah. So. All right. Cool. You want to be found at all? Not at present. I do not. But we collectively can be found on our website at can go through our archives find any of the

280 down episodes that we have posted Find something that piques your interest and go from there We are also of course found on the Apple podcast app on the Android podcast app on Spotify and on the Apple Podcast app, on the Android Podcast app, on Spotify, and on the Amazon Podcast app. Wherever you have found us, please take a moment to give us the five star review that you know we deserve and hit the subscribe button to help us out that way. How about you, sir? Where can you be found? Well, let's see. You can find me and my crew at Capital Punishment at the Comedy Spot in Sacramento every first Friday of the

month at 9 p.m. By the time this drops, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you've just missed the December 6th show. So ring in the new year on January 3rd or February 7th or March 7th or April 4th of 2025 and come check out our show at Sacramento's Comedy Spot. I strongly recommend you get tickets online. Go to saccomedyspot.com and click on their calendars.

Find our show, buy your tickets because we have sold out all but one show so far. It's been fantastic. And if you can't come because you are live further away from Sacramento, then I say stream it. It costs half as much and you can watch it in your underwear. So there we go. All right. Well, for a Geek History of Time, I'm Damian Harmony. And I'm Ed Blalock. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.