The Monday Night War Review: Episode Eight- ‘The Austin Era Has Begun’

The Monday Night War Review: Episode Eight- ‘The Austin Era Has Begun’

-Special Monday night showing of the newest episode in this series and this one focuses on Steve Austin which I guess makes sense as news has been floating he is coming back and WWE is pushing his merchandise hard again. Austin has had a piss load of DVDs in his career, so not sure how much new we will get here, but will only find out by watching.

-Awesome Monday Night War Opening and I have noticed in a cool bit that the first voice we hear is Heenan’s and it also the last one heard.

-Austin pops up and says you have to have an Attitude in this business and some come straight to the top, but he had to fight and scratch his way to that spot. By 1991 Turner had purchased what would become WCW and they were #2 behind the WWF. The roster was headlined by Flair, but had younger guys like Sting and a guy named Stunning Steve Austin.

-So far a lot of the Austin footage is from his last DVD release as he talks about how he had a Texas accent, but was billed as being from Hollywood, CA. CM Punk shows up and he drools over Austin as one would expect and says that Austin was one of his favorites in WCW.

-Austin was holding his own in WCW and the sky seemed to be the limit, but it didn’t happen. Austin talks about how he was good in the ring and needed work with his promos. He talks about how Dusty called him and told him he was getting a push with the US Title. Dusty says nobody knew Austin would turn into what he did so they stopped the singles push and put him into a tag team with Brian Pillman. The Hollywood Blondes were fucking awesome even if Austin buries the idea here as he says he was pissed for getting the rug pulled out from under him. The chemistry was great though and Austin says they were feeding off each and JR mentions that Pillman helped Austin flush out his personality.

-WCW was soon being run by Eric Bischoff and while the product looked better, they booking was stuck in the past apparently. The Blondes were separated at a point when Austin didn’t want it to happen as he knew how over they were getting. The Blondes exploded though and Austin started getting a push back up the ladder to the US Title, but once again things stalled.

-Over in the WWF they were being innovative and cutting edge with Monday Night RAW. In June of 1994 WCW signed Hulk Hogan, the former face of the WWF. Bischoff says he knew Hogan arriving would be a turning point and Austin says once Hogan came he was kind of an afterthought. On cue they show Okerlund putting over Hogan before bringing Austin in for an interview and Austin calls Gene out on it during the interview. Awesome! Bischoff mentions that Austin started getting hurt and he was miserable to be around at that time. Booker mentions that Austin was frustrated and basically pissed off at the world. Cody Rhodes says some people thought Austin could be something and others thought he was only a good mechanic and not marketable. They show some footage of Austin/Savage from Saturday Night and man, would that been a hell of a program that I wish we would have seen.

-Austin tears his triceps and during the rehab he was called by Bischoff and fired. They leave out the part where Austin said that he understood the decision even if he was pissed off because WCW had a lot of guys that could fill his role for a lot less money, but we have to feed the idea that WCW fucked up royally.

-Heyman calls up Austin and tells him to come to ECW and just cut promos until he is healthy. Austin takes him up on the offer and he admits that he felt he was better than ECW and that he belonged in the big leagues.

-WCW was doing just fine without Austin and had launched Nitro to compete head to head with RAW. They rehash the idea that it would split the audience and that WCW wouldn’t be competitive. Austin used Nitro as a way to cut a famous promo in ECW (“Monday Nyquil”) and it is brutal in the way he just destroys WCW and Bischoff specifically.

-ECW was the best thing to happen to Steve as he found a voice nobody knew he had. Heyman admits he did the interviews at 5 AM because he wanted a pissed off Austin on tape. Paul basically told him to talk about what he was feeling and it was glorious. Just ground breaking stuff and it is scary how easily he morphed into such a different character than he was in WCW.

-In January of 1996 Austin was plucked by the WWF, oh wait, only WCW did that. I mean in January of 1996 the WWF gave Austin an opportunity. He was given the role of the Ring Master and had Dibiase as his manager. Austin knew it sucked, but he wanted back in the big time and he admits the WWF had no plans for him and just wanted a mechanic. Dibiase says he was made his manager because they felt he could give Austin the rub. JR mentions that Austin didn’t need a mouthpiece and Austin seems pissed they ignored what he done the previous 5 years. Road Dogg says sometimes the best characters are when guys just become themselves.

-In late May/early June Hall and Nash jump ship to WCW and the new direction creates a ratings juggernaut as RAW starts to get hammered week by week. One of the next people to jump is Dibiase and that leaves Austin without a manager. He tells Vince he wants to be something besides the Ring Master and after watching a documentary on serial killers he wants to be something along the lines of the Ice Man. The WWF office gives him a list of names including Ice Dagger and Fang McFrost. Damn right I would have loved to see Fang McFrost. I mean dude could have been a long lost cousin of Vince. Anyway Austin bluntly says nothing was more suck ass than those names and eventually his wife helps him come up with “Stone Cold” and the rest is history.

-Austin wins the King of the Ring in June of 1996 and he delivers the now famous promo with “Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass.” Brilliant! The next day 3:16 signs showed up at RAW and each week more and more started to pop up in the crowd. Oh, I will say it was kind of strange they didn’t mention that Austin only got his shot because of the Curtain Call that killed HHH’s push, but perhaps they didn’t want to make it look like they really didn’t have any plans for Austin at the time.

-Over in WCW the n.W.o was off and running and WCW was dominating the wrestling world. With their more reality based style the fans were choosing Nitro, so Vince had to make a decision. He decided to unleash Austin and have him usher in the Attitude Era.

-Daniel Bryan talks about how cool Austin was and Heyman says the culture had changed and fans wanted anti-heroes. Bret says nobody wanted to cheer good guys anymore and Austin was ahead of the curve. Things built towards Mania 13 and Austin tears the building down with Bret in what most will tell you is the Greatest Match in Mania History and one of the most iconic matches of all time that people have tried to replicate with no success for years since. Sadly things are in black and white here as this whole thing is really starting to piss me off now. We didn’t get this crap in the first few episodes of the series, and no clue why we need it now.

-Anyway Austin was hot and building a lot of momentum, but things nearly took a devastating turn at SummerSlam 97. In a match with Owen Hart for the IC Tite, Austin gets hit with a sit-out Tombstone and nearly becomes paralyzed. It’s still a miracle Austin was able to finish the match as he says he was scared that he was never going to walk again. He says he didn’t want to be carried out the ring so he did all he could to finish the match and get back on his feet (with the help of the refs) so he didn’t have to get carried out of the ring. Austin talks about how people paid to see him win the Title and he was going to make sure they got their money’s worth. Damn!

-We get footage from the back following the match and you can see that Austin was right fucked. Austin says that night he was 1% tough and 99% lucky. He just avoided being paralyzed and the WWF turned a negative into a positive as Austin was still on the show week after week even if he couldn’t wrestle in the ring. They turned it into the WWF trying to protect Steve from himself and he started stunning authority figures from the bottom up until he finally hit one on Vince McMahon at Madison Square Garden to a massive reaction. The Stunner was one of the worst you will ever see, but damn if it isn’t glorious to watch. You could basically see the Dollar Signs in Vince’s eyes as he flopped on the ground like a fish.

-Austin connected with the audience because of his working man attitude. CM Punk mentions that everyone can relate to Austin as he was a middle class guy that punched in and did his job and defied the Boss while drinking beer and flipping the finger off to the world.

-Even with the Attitude Era taking off, WCW was still winning the war. Oh boy, now we move onto Goldberg and sure enough apparently he was just a copy of Austin. Even Kevin Sullivan admits that it was no coincidence that he looked like Steve. Looked like Steve? Why because they both had bald heads and goatees? I am sorry, but I always found that a stretch because outside the bald head they have nothing at all in common. If anything I swear I have heard that Goldberg was going to be their answer to Ken Shamrock, though I am not sure if that was the case either.

-Now we backtrack a bit and discuss Tyson showing up in the WWF and Austin brawling with him on RAW. Tyson shows up and says he was addicted to chaos and that’s all that was. Austin says it was huge in separating them from WCW in the Monday Night Wars. The ratings increased as things headed to WrestleMania XIV and everyone knew it was going to be the launch of a new era in the WWF. CM Punk talks about how everyone knew this was going to be Austin’s night and Bryan discusses the same thing. Austin wins the WWF Title from Michaels that night with Tyson counting the fall and the reaction is insane. Austin talks about how special it was for him and how he knew the company was putting the load on his back.

-They show the press conference following Austin winning the title and they planted the seeds there for the Austin/McMahon rivalry. Just fantastic stuff as Austin promises that Vince’s nightmare had just started. Vince talks about how things fit perfectly as the working class could get behind Austin because he was being held down by his millionaire boss, and Austin wasn’t going to take it anymore. .

-On April 13, 1998 the WCW reign was ended when the WWF built towards the first Austin/McMahon match, and it was perfect in the way they built to the match over the course of the show. The two companies traded victories heading into the summer of 1998. During the summer and fall, Austin/McMahon was the top storyline and they show the hospital sequence where Vince takes the greatest bedpan shot in the history of the business. They keep trying to top themselves with things like the cement truck and McMahon pissing his pants. Austin says they feud was the most important thing in making fans tune into RAW each and every week. Waltman calls it the biggest money drawing feud in the history of the business.

-The rivalry made everyone else in the WWF step up their game and that only helped the Attitude Era. Russo says everyone fed off Austin’s energy and it made for a competitive group of guys. Thanks to the success of Austin and the Attitude Era fans made a choice in staying with RAW and the show remained #1 for the rest of the time WCW was in business.

-The discussion turns to the Rock joining Vince as the Corporate Champion and how they were building towards a showdown at WrestleMania XV. Cena says that there were 2 men that everyone gravitated to and it was Rock and Austin. The Rock talks about the chemistry between the two and he says it was and still is great. As I have said before, I could live happily with them having a match against each other at Mania from now to eternity because I know they will give everything they have and do everything they can to entertain.

-By the summer of 1999, RAW was killing Nitro in the ratings by nearly 3 million viewers a week and things would never get close again. At that time Austin started having neck issues and had surgery that put him out of action for over a year. Even without Austin, WCW couldn’t gain traction as Goldberg was dealing with his own injury issues and outside of him, older talent was still the focus.

-Now the WWF was thriving as their deep roster stepped up with guys like The Rock and HHH and had a crop of young guys like The Hardyz, Dudley Boyz, and Edge and Christian. HHH said that nobody fretted when Austin went down as they knew more was going to put on them and that’s a chance they wanted.

-Austin came back in the Fall of 2000 and things wrap quickly as WCW closed down in March 2001. Austin had a few more years leading the way for the WWF before his body finally gave out on him. Austin is called the savior of the WWF and led them out of the dark ages of the mid 90s.

-All the talking heads put over the awesomeness of Austin. Punk mentions that nobody thought someone could take Hogan’s place, but Austin was able to pick up that mantle. Rock calls him the greatest superstar the world has ever seen and Vince says he sold out more arenas and broke more PPV records than anyone in WWF history.

-Austin mentions that he had to head off in the sunset sooner than he would have liked, but he had a hell of a ride.

Additional Thoughts: Nothing to new or groundbreaking, but one of the better episodes in the series if only because they didn’t bury WCW as much as they have on other episodes. Everything from Austin on this was from his last DVD release, but the rest of the talking heads added in something new. The Goldberg stuff was a little annoying as was them bypassing why Austin got his shot at King of the Ring and I can’t forget to once again ask why I am getting any blood in black and white now. That is getting all kinds of old.