Classic Wrestling Announcers, Jerry Lawler and MORE with Raven - SAS CLASSIC

Summary

The Steve Austin Show
Episode: Classic Wrestling Announcers, Jerry Lawler and MORE with Raven - SAS CLASSIC
Date: March 26, 2026
Featuring: Steve Austin & Scott Levy (Raven)

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Episode Overview

On this episode, Steve Austin welcomes Scott Levy—better known as Raven—his old friend, travel partner, and legendary wrestling mind, for an in-depth and free-flowing chat. Their discussion covers classic wrestling announcers, iconic workers like Jerry Lawler and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, their own shared travel adventures with Brian Pillman, tales of the wrestling business, personal journeys with addiction and sobriety, the art of promos, and stories from ECW and beyond.
The tone throughout is candid, nostalgic, and irreverent—exactly the style fans love from both Austin and Raven.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Scene and Catching Up

• Steve shares details about his day and home life (dog stories, prepping for a blood donation, house quirks, and missing Broken Skull Ranch). (00:52–06:00)
• Steve talks about missing his old ranch and his plans for hunting trips in Texas and Nevada. (06:00–13:30)
• Listener emails: Stories about weird encounters in public spaces (the theater story), and Steve’s advice on starting a keto (or any) diet: track food, consistency, progress photos, patience, and incremental change. (13:30–22:28)

Notable Quote

“If you show me a piece of food, I can now tell you how many carbohydrates, proteins, grams of fat and calories that motherfucker is.” – Steve Austin (20:05)

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Reuniting with Raven (Scott Levy): Friendship, Road Life, and Wrestling Life

[24:07] – [26:22]

• Raven and Steve riff on being bad with staying in touch.
• Steve prefers “hermit” mode and spending time with his dog rather than being social.
• Dark humor about death and burial real estate (“I’m going to be cremated... if you just burn me, scatter my ashes, well, that’ll be pollution. Maybe I need to rethink this.” – Raven, 26:51).

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Classic Wrestling Announcers & Influences

[28:00] – [62:00]

Jerry "The King" Lawler

• Both men venerate Lawler’s skill as a worker and promo—calling him the best ever.
• Austin on Lawler:

  “Let me just say real quick, best worker I’ve ever seen in history of business. When he was back in the day in Memphis. I don’t think there’s ever been anybody better, dude.” (28:16)

• Lawler’s unique approach: economic in the ring, creative, memorable comebacks, could sell an angle, and make even simple TV matches memorable.
• Raven on Lawler's bumps:

  “He didn’t take crazy bumps all the time, only in big angles. He worked very safe.” (31:07)

Comparing to Jake “The Snake” Roberts

• Both cite Jake as an all-time favorite: master of psychology, economical, promos that left an impact.
• Storytelling about Jake’s role in angles with The Undertaker, and the enduring influence of the DDT.
• Austin:

  “That’s why I sit in the corner. I got that whole idea because Jake would slither into the corner. And I was like, man, I’m taking that and making it my own.” (41:19)

On The Undertaker’s Unique Role

• Austin and Raven marvel at how “Mean Mark” transformed into the Undertaker and the rare ability to pull off such a gimmick.
• “If he was six inches shorter, he would have probably been the Ric Flair of the 1990s.” – Austin (38:17)

Announcer Favorites:

• Jim Ross, especially his early UWF days:

  “He was just full of enthusiasm. Jim was a natural born storyteller.” – Raven (57:24)

• Lance Russell, Gordon Solie, and Joey Styles earn high praise for authenticity and knowing when to let the action speak.
• Anecdotes on Gordon Solie’s drinking habits, on-air composure, and influence.
• Discussion of how overproduction might stifle a natural announcer’s gift.

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Traveling Stories and Remembrance

Brian Pillman:
[45:13] – [52:50]

• Reminiscing as a “comedy trio” on the road with Pillman, their “bad service” restaurant curse, and Pillman’s unmatched locker room presence.
• Reflections on Pillman’s athleticism, football past, wild energy, and his tragic, early passing.
• Emotional recollection of the toll his loss took on the wrestling family:

  “If he could die, that means any of us can.” – Raven (48:05)

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ECW, The Raven Character, and the Art of Promos

[61:06] – [68:21]

• Raven shares origin of the character and finding a promoter who “saw the world through Raven’s eyes.”

  “He’s a tortured poetic genius who blames everybody else for his problems and refuses to look inward…” – Raven (65:33)

• Austin and Raven both put over the ECW locker room for its depth of promo talent; Foley, Shane Douglas, Sandman, Dreamer, and others.
• Raven on the promo process:

  “I don’t think I ever got to have my best match, but promo-wise, there was just one... and I remember I nailed it.” (67:00)

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Addiction, Sobriety, and Life Beyond the Ring

[68:49] – [77:13]

• Raven opens up about pills, drinking, and ecstasy abuse; wrestling with and without the “coat of armor” painkillers provided.
• His “come to Jesus” moments, pancreatitis, brain fog from drug abuse, and how alternative medicine plus therapy helped save his life.
• A frank examination of why and how these dependencies form, and what recovery looks like for a wrestler with deep-rooted anxieties.
• Raven’s parallel: after removing all substances, he shifted to a shopping addiction until finding stability in therapy.
• On triggers and coping:

  “Either you deal with it, take a deep breath, or you suffer. So you talk to yourself.” – Raven (76:16)

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Comedy, Indie Wrestling, and Later Life

[77:13] – [90:54]

• Raven’s second act in stand-up comedy: it has the same camaraderie as wrestling, but “you don’t have to lace up your boots.”
• Enjoys balancing periods of work and sloth, traveling for shows, and finding new sources of pride and identity outside the ring.
• On working indie wrestling shows:

  “You get there, you rule the roost because you’re the name... afterwards, they’ll go, ‘Man, that was the most reaction I ever got.’ We didn’t even do anything. That’s what wrestling is. It’s Shakespeare.” (83:29)

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Conspiracies, UFOs, and The Raven Effect Podcast

[84:21]–[90:54]

• Raven endorses “real” crop circles, shares a UFO sighting story, and jokes about Flat Earth theorists.
• Steve and Raven discuss the format of The Raven Effect (on PodcastOne, Jericho Network) and how Raven fell into podcasting thanks to Chris Jericho.
• Raven's motivations: “I try to make everything, you know, about the comedy. Making people laugh I think is the most important thing—or at least entertained.” (90:54)

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Notable/Memorable Quotes

• “I’m 45, I look like I’m 65, and my internal organs are like 95.” – Steve Austin, on being an organ donor (27:31)
• “Let me just say real quick, best worker I’ve ever seen in history of business. When he was back in the day in Memphis... there’s never been anybody better, dude.” – Steve Austin, on Jerry Lawler (28:16)
• “He could talk people into the seats. Baby face or heel. He was so believable in his work...” – Steve Austin, on Lawler (31:13)
• “That’s the whole thing—people come to be emotionally moved. There’s no need to take a million bumps.” – Steve Austin (82:24)
• “If he could die, that means any of us can.” – Raven, on Brian Pillman (48:05)
• “He’s a tortured poetic genius who blames everybody else for his problems and refuses to look inward...” – Raven, describing his ECW character (65:33)
• “Making people laugh I think is the most important thing—or at least entertained.” – Raven (90:54)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:52 – Steve sets the scene at home and talks about dogs, life after the ranch, upcoming hunts.
• 13:30 – Audience email stories, Austin’s candid keto diet advice.
• 24:07 – Reuniting with Raven; keeping up with wrestling friends, discussion about personal relationships.
• 28:00 – Deep dive into Jerry Lawler, Lawler’s working style, Raven and Austin fangirling on classic “King” stuff.
• 34:03 – Discussion on Jake Roberts, psychology, and classic DDT.
• 45:13 – Brian Pillman stories, travel tales, remembrance.
• 61:06 – Raven on ECW, his character, and philosophy on promos.
• 68:49 – Addiction, sobriety, and coping mechanisms.
• 77:13 – Stand-up comedy, adjusting to life after wrestling, gig anecdotes.
• 84:21 – Conspiracy theories, UFOs, Flat Earth, The Raven Effect podcast.
• 90:54 – Raven's take on comedy, social media, and engaging fans.

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Summary

This episode is a dense, rewarding listen for fans of classic pro wrestling, “shoot” talk, and the intersecting worlds of creativity, personal struggle, and life after the main event. Austin and Raven’s unique rapport yields sharp insight into wrestling psychology, love for classic announcers, the hard edges of wrestling culture, and the enduring bonds between performers. The episode closes with Raven plugging his podcast, advice for enjoying life, and a healthy dose of humor—cutting through the heavy stuff, as only these two can.

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For fans wanting a time capsule of wrestling knowledge, off-the-cuff hilarity, and poignant looks at mortality and friendship, this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[Steve Austin]

The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports right now. The NBA is heating up. March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real time, scores, breaking news and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

you never miss a moment. Oh, hell yeah. The following program is a podcast one.com production he started in a small town

[Steve Austin]

in Texas, worked his ass off to

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

become one of the most famous wrestlers of all time. We're gonna take care of business tonight. And that's the bottom line.

[Steve Austin]

And now he's dominating the world of on demand audio and he's doing it

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

for the working man. This is a damn good outlet for me to spew the off my. This is Steve Austin unleashed. All right, everybody. Welcome to Steve Austin Show. I'm coming to you from the mean streets of Los Angeles, California, today over at 317 Gimmick street, sitting at a table in the middle of the living room in my Austin316 chair. I got the ceiling fan spinning around like a rotisserie chicken on the low setting so you don't hear it spinning around like a rotisserie chicken. I got this table parked up on a rug so my voice doesn't bounce too much. How's it doing? I need some more rugs up in this motherfucker. Anyway, the front door is open. I've got the screen door closed, it's on lock, make sure nobody busts in here. But if they do, I got a big ass can of Woolpass and a baseball bat waiting behind the door for their ass. I'm sitting here and my new little buddy Callie, my black Labrador retriever, is laying right beside me, sleeping like a baby. This little son of a bitch, my wife Kristen got up early this morning to take the dogs to the vet. She figured Callie had an ear infection and she's getting a checkup on moolah, who needed some shots, rabies shots, et cetera. So anyway, she took him to the vet. I stayed back to cook breakfast and get ready to do the open for this podcast. My guest today is Raven of the Raven Effect, Scott Levy, my old travel partner. And she got back from the vet and God damn, I came out of the shower, just got finished shaving and everything, so I could go down to the Red Cross and give a pint of blood. This afternoon I'm getting ready to get geared up for that and I got out of the shower and. Goddammit, this little dog, Callie, loves the swimming pool. She gets in there and she'll just get into the hot tub and she'll just sit and it's about. Well, the water comes right up to the bottom of her jaw and she just sits there looking out like a little bitty Loch Ness monster. And it's cute as hell, but back in the day, she's only seven and a half months old, so she's still a pup. But back in the day when she would get in the hot tub, she didn't know any better. She just come running through the house like a banshee, man, just throwing water everywhere. Well, we broke her of that. So now when she goes and gets in the swimming pool, it's cool. But now she knows that she cannot come inside until I walk out there on the cement and dry her off with a towel. So anyway, I just come out of the shower with my own towel and was getting ready to come over here and do this podcast and there she is sitting in the swimming pool and my wife says, you dog, just got in the swimming pool again. So I went out there and dried her ass off. I brought her over here next door to me and she loves coming over here with me. Every time I come over here and work out, I've got to bring a tennis ball because there's a brick wall between houses. And so I throw the ball against the wall and God damn, that dog will just fet it incessantly until I just quit or tire her out or whatever. I can barely get a workout in. And when I come over here every single time, she likes to come over here and hang out because it's like that's our thing to do. Helicopter PASSING OVERHEAD can you hear that? I'm so sick of these goddamn helicopters. I'm trying to tell you how cute my Labrador puppy is over here, sleeping on my right hand side over here on the rug. And this helicopter comes buzzing overhead. Anyway, me and this dog, we're starting to get thick as Steve's. And like I was telling you, I'm trying to get another buddy. Just like I had Hershey the Wonder Dog for all those years. And me and that dog were inseparable and man, wherever I went, Hershey had to go. And I've tried to take that up with Moolah. Mula's more of a house dog, but Callie's kind of a buddy dog so far. I'm hoping that she likes to hang out with me. And, you know, some dogs are, man, they're just right there by your side, and then others just like to chill at the house. That's moolah. So I'm hoping that Callie turns out to be like the greatest dog in the world. Hershey the wonder dog was no longer with me anyway. God damn, I tell you what, that helicopter just buzzed overhead and I told you guys last week, you know, a while back, we went to the Tamarack Lodge in Mammoth Lakes, California. It was absolutely beautiful place. And I'm already thinking about heading back to Nevada for my other trip. My brother in law is back from his hunting adventures and I got a chance to use his house again to get back out there and look around and just get outside of Los Angeles. Man, this fucking concrete jungle is really chapping my ass. I can deal with it for a long time, but without the Broken Skull Ranch to go to down there in South Texas has really kind of put me in a crunch and left a void because I don't have a place to just escape to and get away. And I'm looking forward to November and December because I'm still trying to plan that out. Because normally, man, every year, and it's just right around the corner. So that's why I'm talking about it. Every year. We headed down to South Texas and we stayed for two and a half months. November all the way through about the first seven to ten days of January. We see my folks down there for Thanksgiving. We do Christmas together. But now that I don't own that ranch, I know my mom was talking about doing Thanksgiving, So we're gonna do that. Maybe Christmas now I think we're gonna do Christmas. I've got a hunt booked down there at a ranch 25 miles from the Broken Skull. And I'm gonna hunt with those folks for about a week. And then I'm gonna go to the Broken Skull Ranch. And those owners, the new owners, have invited me to hunt with them for a couple of days. And I'm not really gonna hunt. I'm just gonna sit in a deer stand and film with a video camera, help them see the deer that they're looking for and just look around. I just want to ride around on a place on a Kawasaki mule. They brought Kawasaki mules just like I use. And so they're cruising around out there. And I conveyed the two broncos. With the place I got the broncos, it'll be damn near like, kind of like being a homecoming. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of shape that they've kept the ranch in ever since I've been gone. Because, man, me, my wife and Ted Fowler 3, 6 1, maintain that place like a state park. Teddy was in charge of the water system from the big pila, the main water system down to the 3,000 gallon pilas. Teddy had all that shit figured out. Anytime those owners call me and ask me a question like that, I say, man, you're gonna have to call my buddy Ted. He's the one who handled that. There was so much of that damn ranch that he handled. And you know, I let Ted do that because, man, as soon as Ted sets his mind to do something, he might not know nothing about it, but he'll get on YouTube and he'll start researching all these like, as far as a water well goes, like contact points, different parts of the well, ball valves, all kinds of shit float valves. And that motherfucker starts reading about it and fuck you think he was trained out of college for it. So Ted handled a lot of that shit. I'm looking forward to getting back down there and just kind of kicking around and looking at the place. And I've been wanting to go back ever since I put that place up for sale. I've been looking for one last arrowhead that I can say came from the Broken Skull ranch in South Texas. So I want to get out there between hunts and me just videoing and just look around for arrowheads and find a couple just for keepsakes, just from memory and look forward to seeing what they did with the place. Hopefully they've improved it or maintained it the way Ted, my wife and I did. Looking forward to seeing some big ass deer because God damn, we grew some big ass deer down there, man. There's gonna be some good ones on foot. And then before I get to Texas though, I have my first mule deer hunt booked in Nevada. I'm hunting with my brother in law who I just spoke of earlier. We're looking to go down to stay with him and visit with him. But November 1 through 5, I'll be taking part in my first mule deer hunt. I don't give a shit if I get anything or not. I just want to get out there in the Sierra Nevadas. I've heard so much, I've been a little bit out there, but I've never been on a mule deer hunt. It's a whole different animal. Ball of wax, it's a deer, but the mule deer, the Behavior, the whole thing is different than the South Texas whitetail deer and just a whole different environment. Because man, when you look in South Texas, you're talking about brush country, you're talking about thick ass brush, you know, limited range on shots. Certain you can air one out on the long Sendero or something like that. But you know, when you're talking about that big country out there in Nevada, you know, you're talking, you know, three to 500 yard shot. It can happen all day long. I mean that's the kind of shots folks are taking and longer than that I might add. But I'm not going to take any kind of crazy shots. I might actually even do some muzzleloader with my brother in law. I'm going to take my seven mag on this hunt. I think my 300 win mag is a little overkill. I'm going to go seven mag and if you've been following the podcast for a while, you know, when I'm in south Texas, I'm a 308 guy. So was Teddy. We just love a 308 at the distances we're shooting at, whether it's pigs, hogs, coyotes, whatever, that caliber is magnificent. But out there in that bigger country with a little bit I want to carry and shoot a little bit flatter and the.308 will certainly shoot out to the range that I'm going to be shooting at. But I just got seven mag is a better choice. Going to take that and goddamn, I'm looking forward to it as this plane flies overhead. And it's another reason why I can't wait to get the fuck out of Los Angeles, getting rid of all this noise. But anyway, hey man, it's enough of me rambling. I'm just sitting there shooting the shit. Let me tell you something, I read every damn email that comes in to questions @Steve Austin Show.com Listen to the close of this podcast. I'm asking you guys or to send me your emails, questions, comments, suggestions, something you want me to talk about or cover. Sometimes I don't, you know, I like to talk to people, but sometimes I don't like to talk to people. But if you give me something that you want to hear about, I can give you my 411 on it. So please keep your questions, comments, suggestions or topics that you want me to cover or someone you want me to podcast with and discuss current events on. Send them to me, man, I'm dying for it. Here's an email from Elliot from West Virginia. Dig his story. Hey Steve, love The podcast the story about your experience while eating a tamarack reminded me of a similar thing that happened to me and my wife. We had went for an afternoon matinee movie once and was excited to see we were the only ones in the theater. I love having a near empty theater as I inevitably have some obnoxious popcorn muncher or talk or sit close to me when there's not too many empty seats. As we sit there, the only two in the theater and almost time for the previews, these two dudes walked in, both carrying the biggest popcorn buckets sold. As they turn to see where they're gonna sit, I see they look at us and I then get the feeling, surely these popcorn eating sons of bitches aren't gonna sit by us with the whole damn theater to choose from anyway. They start walking up the walkway on our side again. I'm thinking to myself, surely not. Oh yeah, these two dumb asses walk right up past our row, then turn around and walk over and sit directly behind us. The whole damn theater's empty. And I'm thinking, you gotta be fucking kidding me. Anyway, we sit there a couple minutes till I'm almost fuming. I then stand up and tell a wife and this is ridiculous. Come on, we're moving over to the other side of the theater. We move over and nothing else is said and we enjoy the movie. But I can't help but remember they had the whole fucking theater to choose from. Could sit anywhere but around our two seats and they sit directly behind us with their huge ass buckets of popcorn. I laugh at it now, but was thoroughly pissed at the time. Elliot in West Virginia, God damn it, man, you ain't shitting, man. It's always like that. Like me and my wife, we're the only two in that restaurant. And I'm thinking, ain't no way, ain't no way these motherfuckers gonna sit by us. And surely they did. And then that dude had to have that cologne on, man. You fucking kidding me, dude? I'll say it once, I'll say it again. Whether you're guy or girl, lighten the up on the cologne and perfume. Believe me, little dab, a little spray will do you. Dude, I feel for you over in that theater. I've had that happen before too, man. I just think some people are lonely. And when he says he was hot about it, it's just frustrating. You hear these people these days. Everybody's going crazy about everything. God damn. From I don't know, everybody's skin is so thin these days. So I understand your frustration. It's not something you just want to fight over it, but it's just like you just want to turn around. You think, motherfucker. Really? We're the only motherfuckers? There's 50 to 100 seats here and you want to sit right the fuck behind us. It don't make sense, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. It's frustrating. Hey, one more question or comment before I get into the podcast with Raven Scott Levy of the Raven Effect on the Jericho Network at Podcast one. One more question. A guy wrote in to me. Again, I'm not a diet expert. I want to get off this keto diet for a little bit. But please keep sending me your questions because I enjoy answering them. I want to talk about some other diet systems here in the future. Here's a guy because I want to bottom line this one more time to anybody out there that's trying to consider losing weight, and you really do want to. Guy says, hey, Mr. Austin, first of all, I'm a big fan. I want to say thank you for doing that podcast with Dave Palumbo. For a guy that's trying to lose some weight that the knowledge is so valuable, I listened to it twice. I'm about to start the journey. In your mind, what is the biggest tip of the diet? Any answer is much appreciated. Also, love the Broken Skull Challenge and a podcast that has to win an award someday. Thanks, James. Hey, James, here's an answer. And first of all, before you start the keto diet, consider just regular diets as well. Just as far as dropping some carbs down and not going zero carb or less than 20 grams of carbs. So consider your options before you decide, hey, let me go keto. I had tried every diet in the book and I decided to try keto and it worked for me. So I just want to make sure that you explore your options before you choose the diet. But if you chose keto, here's my advice on the diet. I wrote James back. I try to answer as many emails as I can. I said, james, glad you liked the podcast. Biggest tips are. This is what I wrote to him. Four tips number one. Track all of your food. I use an app called Cronometer. I can't remember, it's a free app or I paid a buck 99 for it. Cronometer is so goddamn easy to use. I mean, I tried MyFitnessPal. I couldn't understand it. If you use it and it works for you, more power to you cronometer was simple as fuck. And the Cronometer app was recommended to me by Tyler Cartwright of ketogains.com. man, you talk about a smart, knowledgeable dude. This guy was a wealth of information when I first started exploring the ketogenic diet. And I'd love to talk to Tyler on the podcast and talk straight up standard keto, because I think that's what he practices and he's had tremendous success with it. I use modified keto. He does standard, but, you know, he's a wealth of information. He's the guy that recommended Cronometer to me and I just love it as far as tracking my food. So anyway, back to you, the answer track all of your food. I used an app called Cronometer and before I found that app, I just wrote everything down in a notebook because I didn't know any better. I couldn't figure out my fitness pal. This is before Tyler turned me on a cronometer. I would just write down dude in just a straight up notebook and I would get on calorie king and I'd look up all my measurements. Right now if you show me a piece of food, I can tell you how many carbohydrates, proteins, grams of fat and calories that motherfucker is. That's how accurate I am. Now I'm, I still weigh my food, but before I found that scientific app, I wrote everything down in a notebook. 2. Be consistent with diet and all workouts. Hey man, if you're going to embark on this journey, you have to stay straight up consistent and do it every single day with regard to your diet. No cheats, no nothing. Dave Palumbo worked in a cheat meal with me several weeks. It might have been two months into the program before I got a cheat meal because we had to. Getting on a diet and starting the fat burning process, it's kind of like being in the woods and starting a fire. Sometimes that fire doesn't catch and it starts smoldering, smolder and smolder and finally it starts catching. Like the metabolism starts spinning up and so then you're just rocking and rolling and just everything's dropping off. But you don't just, you don't get a cheat day initially. So be consistent with the diet. Put in the work when it comes to your workouts, whether you're working out three times a week, four times a week, six times a week, I don't give a shit whether your cardio is every other day, everyday, steady state, high intensity, I don't care Whatever your program is, you must be consistent with your diet and all of your workouts. 3. Take a photo of yourself in the mirror once a week for your records and to note progress. The scale does not always tell the truth of what is going on. So sometimes when that scale, when that needle is not moving or that digit is not going down, hey man, sometimes it's a change in body composition. You might start looking better and still weighing the same. Well, if you're still weighing the same but you're looking better, shit's happening and good shit. So make sure that you take those photos. And that's one of the things where I was being held accountable by Dave. He's been bodybuilding or in the sport for, geez, I guess probably close to 30, 40 years and he has a very good eye. And you don't have to be a bodybuilder with 30 years experience to to notice a difference in the pictures. So try to use. I would always try to take the picture in the same mirror in the same light all the time. If you're traveling, don't make a shit. Just make sure you take your weekly picture because that way you can look back and say, okay, scale ain't moving, I look the same or the scale is moving, I'm looking better. It's all about tracking your progress. Number four, be patient. Look for results weekly or bi weekly or even monthly. Do not look for results daily or overnight. That never happens and you will end up setting yourself up for failure. That's about it. Good luck, Steve. P.S. set a realistic short term and long term goal with a date. So let me get back to number four. There's been times I was caught up in a diet and man, I have a hell of a weightlifting session over here at the gym. I do my cardio and I'm thinking, man, I got to go look at myself in the mirror. Almost expecting there to be a visual loss in body fat from one workout because I thought I had such a good workout. Nah, big mistake, real dumb. You can go look at yourself but don't look for short term results. On a daily, nightly, two day, you might get to the point where you're seeing those results come then, but don't look at that or you're setting yourself up for failure. Let this motherfucking helicopter pass by, motherfucker. NPR Radio, this is not so anyway, dude, be patient. It's going to take you a long ass time to get down where you want to go depending on how much weight you have to lose. And for me man, sometimes when we first started, it was slow and then it got to be sometimes a pound, 1.22 pounds a week. That was exciting. And then it would stagnate. I might stay the same weight for a couple of weeks and then it kicked back in. So I was very, very patient. Now, me being by myself, I would have modified that. I would have started making changes to my diet plan. So be patient and let me add in another five. If you do change your diet, if you are working, you know, doing this for yourself with yourself, make very gradual changes and change one factor. Dave would only change, like he would only mess with fats because really that's all we had to mess with. Well, we took out protein in the beginning, but it'd be like one ounce of protein, a meal or this many grams of fat. I mean, minor, minor, minor changes one at a time. So make very, very small increment changes if you decide to make changes. And, and then that last one, like I said, set a realistic short term and long term goal with a date. I did, and it helped me see the writing on the wall and helped me stay true to what I was trying to do to help me achieve that goal. Anyway, let me wrap this thing up. I've got Scott Levy, the Raven on the podcast, part two of our conversation, Shooting the Breeze at 317 Gimmick street, send me your questions, comments and suggestions to [e-mail] here. Here we go.

[Steve Austin]

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[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

This is Steve Austin Unleashed. All right, I'm sorry. Sitting here at 317 gimmick street, no agenda on hand, sitting here talking about anything. Scott Levy. Hey, how do you pronounce your last name? I said Levy.

[Steve Austin]

No, it's Levy.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, sorry about that. You want me to have it cleaned up? I don't care.

[Steve Austin]

No, I don't care.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I always call you Scotty.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, I remember you used to leave me voicemails. You'd go, the Raven. Call. Call the Raven. And you would do that for, like, four or five minutes until you got bored of doing it. And you would just entertain yourself. You'd be cracking up, like, after every

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

third call, but then you would return them. It got to be kind of ridiculous. Then we lost touch with each other for a long time. Yeah, we got back in touch. And now you're over here in Los Angeles.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

You know, good to see you.

[Steve Austin]

Thank you, man. It's great to see you. The. What it was is I'm not. I'm not a big phone person, and so. And I'm not. I don't know, I'm, like, in person, I'll chew your ear off. But at home, once I'm away from a. You know, from the business or people, I'm just a hermit. You know, I want to sit on my couch with my dog and watch TV and just not be bothered. And. And so it's. I don't really keep in touch with very many people. You know, like, me and Hurricane tweet each other, you know, text each other. Maybe every four or five months, you

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

know, he'll send me a gif or whatever you call, like, some crazy bump in Japan or something like that, you know, just. Just here, there. Do you keep up with anybody? Because I got, like, few guys that I'll call on a random basis. But going back. Going back to your point, man, like, a lot of people leave me voice messages. Not a lot. But whoever does leave me a voice message, and, dude, they're like, finally, I'll see him. Like, dude, we got heat or what, Man, I'm sorry. Everybody hates me because I never return text messages. I never return phone calls and sometimes an email. But, yeah, I got a couple guys I hang, I still talk with. But, dude, I don't just. I haven't forgotten anybody. I'm just not very. I'm not very big phone guy either.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like you have your significant other, you know, Like, I got married. We got divorced, but we got divorced to save the friendship. So we're best friends. It's the best relationship I've ever been in. But if I got something to tell somebody, I'll tell her, you know, I don't want to tell any. Like, you know, back in the day, when you're younger, you want to tell everybody, you know, you do something interesting or, you know, war story, whatever. Like, I want to tell her. I don't really care about anybody else. I'll tell my dog. My dog likes to listen, you know, but, yeah, I don't have any need to or desire to. And, you know, so maybe when I die, I'm not going to have a whole lot of people at the funeral because I didn't keep in touch with anybody. But I'm going to be dead. I'm not going to know anyway.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Have you ever. I don't want to start talking about death, but I'm going to be cremated.

[Steve Austin]

Are you?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. And the reason I said is because I figured like this, hopefully I'm going to live another 20 years, and so there'll be valuable real estate that I would be taking up by just laying in the ground. So if you just burn me, scatter my ashes, well, that'll be pollution. Maybe I need to rethink this.

[Steve Austin]

I want to. I'm going to leave my organs, like.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, well, I'm an organ donor, too.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, well, I got. I don't have a piano, but if I get one. But no, I'm going to be. I think everybody should be an organ donor. Yeah, you should, you know, so.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, but I'm thinking. I mean, it's like, I don't know who's going to want this. It's like. Like we could put Austin's liver in you, but we think you'll be worse off.

[Steve Austin]

Remember, DDP used to be. I'm 45, I look 35, and I work like I'm 25. Well, I used to be. I'm 45. I look like I'm 65, and my internal organs are like 95.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

We were talking about. Who are we talking about? I can't remember who we're talking about here.

[Steve Austin]

I'll buy you some time.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Buy me some more time.

[Steve Austin]

All right, one more time.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

All right. The dietary time. I was working with Lawler and he's trying to call High Spots before we even locked up. No, I've told the story too many times on the podcast. But anyways, first time I was working with Lawler and he's won a book. The Match. Monday, Memphis. Tuesday, Louisville. Wednesday in Evansville.

[Steve Austin]

Let me Just say real quick, best worker I've ever seen in history of business. When he was back in the day in Memphis. I don't think there's ever been anybody better, dude.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I'm a huge fan as well. He's one of the best ever.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And it was very economical. And like I said to someone the other day, Lawlor was more of a brawler than it was a scientific wrestler. Sure, he was a stand up guy,

[Steve Austin]

but that's how you drew money back then. Because it was a fight. It was supposed to be a fight,

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

but I'm in a ring working with him and he booked the territory. So I guess he wanted to beat the new guy coming in territory. I don't know.

[Steve Austin]

Why wouldn't he?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, I was jacked up. I looked the part, but just as soon as the bell rang, forget about it. Anyway, so we're working, we're pacing around the ring in a clockwise direction. Whatever happened. And there's Lawler going into ventriloquist mode. All right, grab a headlock, tackle, drop down, tackle, drop down, hip top, spot and go. I don't hear very well, right? What?

[Steve Austin]

And your nerves are probably like, nerves,

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

dude, I'm working with the King.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And so anyway, he calls the high spot three times and I'm like, huh? It was dude in the front rows going, he said, tackle, drop down, hip toss, J bro. But I'll never forget working with Lawler and I always wanted to work with Lawler when I was accomplished, when I was really good, Right? So I would have loved to feuded with him. When Austin was his peak and Lawler

[Steve Austin]

was at his peak, that's what I would have loved to do. To do that. I mean, you know, it's a shame. Like when I was in WWE and they had me, we were in Memphis and I was working with Lawler and I sold Vince on this idea. Right before they terminated me, I sold him on this idea. The Seven Deadly Sins. The greatest storyline I ever wrote, right? And so Vince is like, oh my God, that's great. I want you to be on the booking committee. And I'm like, I don't want to be in the booking committee. I want to, I want to keep, I want to wrestle, I want to do this. So he's like, all right. He goes, he goes. He goes, I want you to quit. Because I was commentating on Heat. He goes, I want you to quit Heat. I want you to do a, to do a count out with Lawler. I'm like, no, you can't have Me do a count with Lawler in Memphis. I got to. I got to do the job. He's like. He's like, no. And now I look back, maybe it was partial rib, but. So he goes. And he had to leave the building. So I got to tell Briscoe that Vince doesn't want me to do the job. Right. So I guess I hear that it ends up in Lawler's book that I wouldn't do the job for him. But. But the funny thing is, is I'm like, I've. I'll go on record anywhere and say he's the best work I ever seen. I mean, far and away. But I'm like, what a. What a way. Like, if you're for your hero. You know what I mean?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. To remember you. Yeah. Especially in his book.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. But what's pretty cool, though, is, is he goes. He goes. I don't. I didn't. I didn't write half the book anyway, so I. Because I don't care what.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Drew, what. What did you like about Lawler's work?

[Steve Austin]

Well, let me give you some of the odd things. First, he took crazy bumps. Like, he took fearless bumps, like when Joe Leduc threw him onto the wooden table. Yeah, onto the table. So he was ballsy. I mean, that. Not that that's a big skill, but.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

But let me interject. He didn't take crazy bumps all the time, only in big angles. He worked very safe.

[Steve Austin]

That's what. That's what I'm getting at is. And. And so. So for people who think, you know, he just was, you know, just a. Now all they see is he's a drop kick, you know, and whatever. You know, they don't. You'll never get it. If you didn't watch Lawler before he went to wwe, you'll never get him. But he was so. He could talk people into the seats. Baby face or Heel. He was so believable in his work. He was economical. He was creative. He never had the same comeback twice, you know, which. We all did the same comeback because it. The people wanted it, you know, because it. Because you build a rapport and you want to have your signature moves. But he didn't. Other than he had the fist drop, which was his signature finish.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Well, that. And it's pulling a strap.

[Steve Austin]

And it pulled a strap. Yeah. So he made. So. Yeah. But then once he pulled the strap, it was all varied, which. Which I really respect because it. It changes the comeback, but yet he still has a signature beginning of it and the signature end to it and everything he did. Like, although the first time I'm working with him and like when he, when you punch him, he slaps you on the side of your belly to make a pop. And he slapped me and I sold it. It's like, what are you doing? Like, I'm an idiot. But he's just. Everything he did. Like this, this is what I was going to say. So this is how clever he was. He's working to Razor Ramon. I told the story a bunch of times, but. But never here. So the. He's working Razor Ramon. Razor Ramon shoots the toothpick at him. Lawlor goes down like he's been shot. The camera shoots over. Lawler's holding the toothpick in his eye. Like he'd been like, the toothpick one right in his eye. He's selling it like nobody's business. And I was like, wow. Instead of having your regular old match with, you know, like, because you know it's going to be a five minute regular TV match.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

He just made this into something totally cool and unique. I mean, it's just. That's the cleverness, you know, I mean, it's like when you watch matches back in the day, they'd have squash matches all the time and there was nothing worse than watching certain guys have squash matches because they were so boring. But then you watch Jake the Snake and he made a squash match look like. Look like a main event, you know, and, and that's how the King was.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

But you had to be. We're both huge Jerry Lawler fans and I talk about it on podcasts so much. I sound like an idiot because he's blowing smoke a blaw's ass again. I just love the guy's work. I love his promos. I love everything. He had a great career and it was great to watch.

[Steve Austin]

And he was so excited when he made that comeback. I still get goosebumps when I watch

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

the way he sold, though. I mean, you know, he was like, dude, that was, that was theater.

[Steve Austin]

You know what he would do. I don't know if you ever noticed this. When he would pull the strap down, he'd go up on his tippy toes and push his chest out, which just all of a sudden he got bigger.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. And you know, it was also posture too. It was like, hey, motherfucker, you know, shit's on.

[Steve Austin]

But, but, but to the audience, you don't see those little things, but all sudden he just got bigger, you know, like, it just little things like that.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So if you're a Big Lawler fan. You got to be a huge Jake fan. Because when you say economic as a worker to Lawler, exact same for Jake. Now, I wouldn't say a different type of worker, but their body language was different.

[Steve Austin]

Jake's probably my second favorite worker.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Okay. But I mean, he's one of my favorites as well. But when you say economical, everything Jake did was for a reason. And when I say economical, I mean it's a compliment.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Everything he did meant something. He's always working for that DDT because that's how he's going to finish somebody. That guy was phenomenal. And he was a great. He was a great promo. It's always sometimes when you hear these people talk about, oh, yeah, the five greatest promos, blah, blah, blah. Dude, Jake's one of the best promos. Lawler's one of the best promos. There's two on your top three or five list right there.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. I'm in at number four.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. And I'm going to take the odd spot at five. I want to be in the top 10. I want to be seven or nine. What'd you like about Jake's work?

[Steve Austin]

Let me just say one thing. Remember, remember when. When a Booker T. Would go, he'd go, I wanted a four. I'm one of the top five workers in the business. And disco would go, that means you're number five. And he goes, no, I'm in the top five. He goes, well, if you're number four, you'd be in the top four workers.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Here's the thing. And me and Booker used to laugh about this when we both got up in wwf because we always got along real good. I remember when he came down to wcw, you know, him and Steve Ray, they were a good tag team. Yeah, yeah, Great look. And then Booker T. Went on with the singles run, was great. But when he came down, he was talking, yeah, man, I'm one of the top five workers in the world. And it was such bullshit. And he had actually. The whole locker room was stirred up because, like, man, what the fuck does this guy talk about? How can he be the top five? He was just arbitrarily making up this stat. And the way you. Because Booker's a good talker.

[Steve Austin]

He's a great talker.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

But just the way he was saying it, like, the boys thought it was a shoot and, like. But was like kind of defending himself, right? Like, it was. It was. It was a great. It was one of the greatest ribs in the history of my time there.

[Steve Austin]

And probably one of the baddest guys in the locker room that doesn't act like he's a badass. You know what I mean? Like as a shoot.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Oh no, no. Yes, as a, like as a street fighter. And the dude, he didn't play football. He played in a band in high school.

[Steve Austin]

He was the, he was the band, the band Matri.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

It was the baddest band majorette ever.

[Steve Austin]

Ever.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Whatever you call him. Band. Bandleader. But anyway, he was a badass.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, exactly.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Go back to Jake's work.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. Oh, and here's the funny thing is for years Jake was my favorite worker of all time. And now I'm in a Lawler phase. But it'll eventually, I'm sure it'll go back to law. To Jake like, but it'll always be. Those two are my favorite workers because they both, they both talk people into the seats. They made you believe in what they said. They made you. They could have a crappy match, which they didn't. I mean I don't think they could have a crappy match but you could have like, like Dusty was able. Like Dusty could have the worst match. But then next week on TV he'd talk you right back into the seats like. And you'd forget that he had a bad match. And that's the, the, the arc or the. Look at the chic. I mean the chic. Well he didn't even talk, but he could, he could have these, you know, matches where they have a five minute count out yet they'd come back the next and sell the place out again. I mean there's, there's a certain, certain skill being able to make people want to pay to see you get your ass kicked or to see you kick their ass. And both of them have it in spades, man.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

To me growing up a huge Jake the Snake fan. And then it was when Undertaker really started running rough shot in WWF and God dang, man, just to segue on him for a second, man, when they first plucked him out of WCW because he came down to Dallas, I wrestled a couple times with him. I couldn't hear the high spots. He just had to smoke me, right. And beat me on TV and I was horrible. And he goes through WCW and he's part of the Twin Towers or Right, right. Whatever they were. Him and Spivey and what awesome look. And even when he was the Punisher or Mean Mark, all that stuff you just knew, I mean just. Dude, he was so big and intimidating. Like this guy's got star written all over him. I don't know if he's gonna put the pieces together, but he's got star written all over him. Sure enough, here he goes up to WWF and they put that Undertaker gimmick on him. And there's nobody that could have pulled off that gimmick like Mark did. Nobody.

[Steve Austin]

I've always said that if he was six inches shorter, he would have probably been the Ric Flair of the. Of the. Of the 1990s, you know what I mean? Like the perennial world champion. Winning the belt, losing the belt, but because he was so big, they had to put him in a creature feature match for the longest time, and he couldn't display how good a worker he really was.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, because it's the biggest guy in the territory. You can't wrestle everybody scientifically. Just doesn't make sense.

[Steve Austin]

But if he would have been 63 instead of 610, imagine the matches he would have had then.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Speculation. Back to the. Back to what really happened, though. So Vince puts the Undertaker gimmick on him. Man, I remember when he made his debut. I've talked about this podcast. I'll get to the point I was trying to make, because we're talking about Jake the Snake Roberts. All of a sudden, he makes his debut, a Survivor Series, whatever was. I think he dropped Snook on his dome. Dude, he was so scary. I mean, for his shoot.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And I'm sitting there, I knew the guy. I wrestled him a couple times, and we weren't tight at all. But I'm watching this guy, like, thinking, man, this dude is really pulling this gimmick off, man. It's scary as hell. Kids, they showed the audience the crowd, shot these kids about to shit them pants. That's how scary it was. So, anyway, fast forward.

[Steve Austin]

Let me. Let me just jump in real quick. When I was a kid, like, you know, like, when you go to the matches, you go running up and you, hey, screw you did it right to the wrestlers and. And then they make a move at you, you're like, you're not going to do anything. I'll sue you. Right? Abdul the Butcher, you start yelling at him, he'd walk towards you, I'd back up, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, in high school, I'm like, I'm still. I'm like, I don't know if I can sue him. Like, this guy, I thought he was for real. I thought this guy was the madman from the Sudan. I thought he was real. I found out he's just a fat guy from Canada. I was Brokenhearted.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

But woods were best. Due respect.

[Steve Austin]

With all respect. No, I don't mean. No, he's amazing, but he was terrible. I mean, he. I really thought he was real. I thought he was real. And when I found out he wasn't from the Sudan, I was really disappointed. For a shoot.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. But also in that. In that protected environment, would he be a dude that might cut you?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So as that high school kid or whatever, you were walking up to him as he's walking back to you. Yeah. You're going to backpedal.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So anyway, back to the Jake the Snake again. So takers lit up. All of a sudden, they're doing that angle. Paul bearers there. God rest his soul. They trap Jake traps taker's hand between the coffin. You remember saying, hits him with a ddt. And this is not on a stage set, right?

[Steve Austin]

And he goes, oh, short ride, bad landing. Greatest. Oh, the greatest.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

One of the best angles I ever seen in my life. It was great.

[Steve Austin]

Greatest catchphrase ever that he didn't. It's the one. He should have used it so much more, but he used it sparingly. But I. I totally pilfered that and used it in many a promo. Short trip, bad landing. That's why I took the DDT as a finish, because of him.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Really?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, yeah, totally.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

God, what happened to the once coveted lethal ddt?

[Steve Austin]

Just job doubt. Because people want to use it for high spots and. And you know what? People don't do it right, though. There's no imp. For the most part. People don't have any impact because they don't understand the mechanics of the body. You know, it's almost like your feet have to go up at a 90 degree angle, which makes you look like you're falling, like you're bumping with so much more speed. And it's so. It's not the height, it's the. It's the speed. But I was gonna say the. Oh. And that's why I sit in the corner. I got that. I got that whole idea because Jake would slither into the corner. And I was like, man, I'm taking that, making it my own. So, in fact, somebody tweeted me today, they go, why do you sit in the corner? Well, if you're paying attention to Austin's podcast now, you know, and if you didn't, who cares?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

The DDT was something that, man, I probably only used a couple times in my whole wrestling career just because I wasn't really comfortable giving it right. It looked cool and it was badass, but I just, I was one of the guys. If I used it, the impact wasn't there.

[Steve Austin]

Well, part of the reason too is, and I had to tell guys all the time is don't do a somersault. Guys would do a somersault for the bump and there's no impact. Then it's a somersault, you know, so you have to go take a flat back, a flat face bump that, that, that makes it. Or if you're a canyoner and Canyon and Kidman could take it and spike and just be spiked into the ground and stay there like a, like a javelin that just landed. Yeah, I don't know how they did it, but like they just pivot. They just put their hand down and their arm and just, I guess it's stomach muscles and just hold their body like they just got shot into the ground and stay there for like three seconds before just collapsing.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Is that your favorite finish of all time?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, absolutely. That's why I did it. And why can't Vince McMahon take a stunner properly?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Man, every time I gave that guy a stunner that first time, I lit him up in Madison Square Garden. You know, I got the plan, we were going to go out there, we executed it, and all of a sudden, man, I kick him in the gut. And you know, this man, he's a real muscular, bound up guy. So he kind of bends over a little bit and I try to grab him. I got to make a midair adjustment. Almost lost him. Anyway, I was able to finish the stunner, but every time I stun that guy, and I love Vince and he's tough as nails and I really like the angle that he just shot an angle with Kevin Owens a couple weeks ago and Kevin Owens headbutted him for a shoot. Tough.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, I heard about that.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So, Vince, I texted Kevin Owens after, I said, I said, nice work. I said, the old man's a tough son of a bitch. And he goes, yeah, he is. So anyway, that's what I think about Vince.

[Steve Austin]

I bet Owens, I bet Owens really appreciated that.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Oh, yeah. But just anytime I work with Vince, he's just, he was the greatest guy in the world to work with because he was out there to get all the showmanship that he could out.

[Steve Austin]

Right.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And you. I loved his old commentary, the way he got wrapped up. Some people thought he overdid things. I loved his commentary. But out there when you're doing business with him, he's just not real athletic, not athletic at all. Like the one time we were working in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Memphis, Tennessee at the pyramid. He goes to throw me into the cage. You know, we're outside. I mean like dude, he whipped me so hard because most time you gather yourself up so you can take your own run and take your own bump, bounce off. But he threw me with such force, I'm like, God damn. I guess I'm gonna take a bump over here.

[Steve Austin]

How about one of Dudley's tried to super bomb him and he tipped the whole cart over and they fell off the top rope onto the floor.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

He's not the most graceful guy in the world. So I, I don't know what the stunner abilities, you know, for the most part, I think it was a pretty easy bump to take. Yeah, I took it myself. Rock gave it to me a couple times. Yeah, I enjoyed taking it.

[Steve Austin]

Scott hall takes it like a million bucks. He just, just puts his head down, hits your shoulder and just jumps up. But Vince somehow takes a flat face bump.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

But then, then the deal is the after sale when he goes into like the, like the, like a seizure, the convulsions. Yeah, they got. His eyes are open. This look on his face is priceless. Yeah. But anyway, where you want to go from here?

[Steve Austin]

Wherever you want to go. We can talk about sex, drugs, rock and roll.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Oh, you want to buy me some timer?

[Steve Austin]

I'll buy you some vamp. I'll vamp for you.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Brian Pillman.

[Steve Austin]

Brian Pillman.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I just got a. It was on Twitter the other day. I guess it's been 20 years. Wow. Since Brian Pillman passed away. And back in the day, in our WCW days, you, me and Brian used to rent those Chevy Lumina vans. And we call ourselves the comedy trio. Plagued by bad service. Plagued by bad. And everyone restaurant we went to.

[Steve Austin]

I forgot that we were. We were plagued by bad service.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

That was our, that was our trademark.

[Steve Austin]

Yes.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And we, we traveled around the world together. Around the United States. Goddamn. We booked the territory. And if you and me were booking a territory. Palmo's riding shotgun. Reading his vocabulary.

[Steve Austin]

Yes. His power vocabulary books.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Because he's trying to build up.

[Steve Austin]

You know, you always had to drive because Pillman would be in the back lane. He'd be laying in the back reading. I always drove like crap. So that you could. So you'd like. I'm not letting you drive. And I'm like good.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

You were, you were just your wheel skills like diving Dallas Page. I don't like Dallas driving. I didn't like Mick Foley's driving. Kevin Ash. I liked his driving skills. Billy Gunn, safe driver.

[Steve Austin]

You.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

You scared me.

[Steve Austin]

I'm the worst wheel man in the

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

business, so, but, but. So you're cool with it? There's no heat there.

[Steve Austin]

No, I could care less.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I'd be driving down the road laughing and joking and stuff and booking a territory and I can't believe it's been 20 years since that guy has died. And I'll never forget. I want to see if you got any pillman stories. I'll never forget, man. Right before he passed away, we was up there. Was it Minnie or somewhere? Because we're going to have a pay per view. And he'd been in the company for six months. I can't remember how long it was. He's kind of wobbling a little bit, carrying his suitcase out of building. I hadn't worked yet. And I said, man, he don't, he don't look so good. Because as tight as we were, you know, back in the day, you know, when I got up to wwf, man, I was kind of doing my own thing. All right, here comes Brian. He was recovering an ankle because you

[Steve Austin]

were, you were wrestling Savio Vega in his shears, tough skin pants.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, do. Savio could work his ass off. Yeah, that's a working something. But, you know, saw Brian and then, you know, he ended up passing away. But I was just like never in a million years did I think that guy would, would meet his demise that early. Because, dude, I just figured first of all, he was a man's man. He was tough as nails. Everybody liked him. I mean, he had, he was. Because, I mean, he was, he was out there.

[Steve Austin]

Greatest locker room promo history to business.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, well, him and Arn.

[Steve Austin]

Him and Arn.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And so I just figured, man, there's no way. The guy's so smart and just intelligent and electric. There's nothing ever going to happen to that guy. And then all of a sudden we heard he died. And then we're out there and they ring the bell 12 times. I don't think it really hit me or understood that Brian was gone until they started ringing that damn bell, told him about whatever. And then it's like, yeah, that was a heavy moment. It was on Monday Night Raw. It was like, God dang, the gravity of it all weighed in.

[Steve Austin]

If he can die, that means any of us can.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, so. But I'll never forget, man, we. When I first got the call to come to WCW from USWA and you know, from the weekly territory days when you go to wcw, now you're on a guaranteed contract.

[Steve Austin]

Right.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And so you got a paycheck coming in the mail. You know, like in Memphis, you got paid every Wednesday in Evansville. And we would go.

[Steve Austin]

That's right. That's right.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. And we would go to Evansville, to the liquor store and cash our checks and, you know, some. Sometimes I was just double digits. And that's after work in six days.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So it was ridiculous.

[Steve Austin]

So double digits.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Oh, yeah, dude. And sometimes we, you know, if the territory. The territory was down and we were working three to four days a week rather than the normal six. So anyway, I go into Atlanta, I'm the new guy in the territory. I'm at the Atlanta Gold's gym at the airport.

[Steve Austin]

Sure.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And all of a sudden I see Pillman across the gym. Dude, Pelman's jacked up. Yeah, of course, he had his. His waist was like 28 inches, broad shoulders, all jacked up. You could kind of feel the electricity from across the gym. I said, damn, there's flying Brian. I'd seen him on television, but, you know, when you're in the territories or the grass system and the guys are in the big leagues, you just kind of. You see them doing their thing. So I didn't go introduce myself to him. Be a marker. That's something like that. So anyway, sure enough, I start working. You know, I see him here, there. We pass by, you know, we're always cool with each other, but, you know, we got to be kind of friendly. And I'll never forget we rolled into Dothan, Alabama, television taping. Here comes Brian, and I know him a little bit, and I don't even think we'd work together yet. And he goes, hey, kid. He goes, we need to come up with a finish. We're a tag team. I said, dude, what the fuck you talking about? I said, I'm fixing to get a United States title run with Harley Race because that's what Dusty's plans were for me to do. And I told Brian, I said, no, man, I'm going to be the US Champion with Harley Race. He goes, no. He goes, we're a tag team. Go talk to Dusty. So I go find Dusty. I say, dusty, I was just talking to Brian. I said, what's going on? He goes, yeah, baby. He goes, we're going to save the whole list. And so anyway, we turned into a tag team. And at first, I think they just put us together to get guys over, get over established tag teams, you know,

[Steve Austin]

I think you might be remembering it slightly wrong and. Which I wouldn't which, look, I'm. Maybe I remember it wrong, but I remember that we were riding together, the three of us already, and then me and Pillman wanted to be a tag team, and you were going to get the US Title, and then you. Then Pillman found out.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, okay. But I am right, Because I did want to be the. I was going to be the us you guys want to be.

[Steve Austin]

You guys were already.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

We were already good friends, but we were riding together. Thank you. Clearing that up.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean. Yeah. And like, I got. I got. I always felt like I got to be the odd man out, but it wasn't. That watch just didn't like me, so I. I wasn't going to be there much longer, but.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

But that was. Right, you guys wanted to be a tag team.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, because we figured we're both smaller, you know, that. Fuck. You know, that way we can, you know, because if you're smaller, you got to be in a tag team, you know? I mean, what I never understood was with all the drugs Brian did and drinking, why didn't just gas up and become 220, 230, 240, and just, you know, because he always felt like that he was, you know, that it was this, which it was. It was his size holding him back because, you know, the big man mentality, dude.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I always heard his football accolades, you know, throughout my wrestling career, I heard, hey, man, that guy's a badass football player. All this stuff. I think, okay, I guess he was. And I just knew him as a badass pro wrestler, Right. And then we shot the angle where I was going to break into his house with a gun, right. His wife was there and all that. And all of a sudden I get there and we're kind of just going through the beats, what we're going to do. And this is pretty cutting edge for 1995.

[Steve Austin]

Oh, really?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

There was.

[Steve Austin]

It was too soon. It was. It was a. Oh, yeah. If you'd have done it four years later, you'd have been. I'd have been Main event, money drawn, nothing but business.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Well, it was. It was attention getting for sure.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So anyway, but there we were at his house in Cincinnati, or right. Actually in Kentucky on the border. And dude, I walked in, his basement, had a real nice house, and, dude, there was All America Awards plastered all over the damn basement. I was like. He had his own tanning bed, the whole setup. And it was. Everything was framed real nice. I was like, like, holy, man. You know, the rumors of this guy being a football star weren't right.

[Steve Austin]

Right.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

It was a real deal.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. Although I have to say one thing, though. Not about him, but I always hated when they'd go, oh, this guy played pro football. And then they'd be like, I'm like, wait a minute. If the guy played pro ball and he didn't become a big star, but he comes to wrestling, he's a big star, that means we're less than the football players. Why wouldn't they ever say he quit football to be a wrestler? As opposed to saying. As opposed to using the fact that he played football as an accolade. You know what I mean?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Right.

[Steve Austin]

How is that? Always irritated me.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Sometimes when I'm listening to you talk, I'm thinking about Lance Russell and storytelling.

[Steve Austin]

Oh, come on, Eddie. Tommy Rich Waylaid by Eddie Gilbert. Oh, boy, howdy.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Because a lot. Because a lot of times we were riding down the road, you'd go into that, or you'd go into your Gordon

[Steve Austin]

Sully brother, the Crimson Mask Gordon Sully. My favorite thing he ever did was he was so me. Like, he always maintained his cool. You know what I mean? He was always professional. And one time, Oliver Humperton got so mad at him, he started choking Gordon solely. And Gordon Sully's going, regain your composure, sir. Regain your composure. That's awesome. Like, he didn't fight back. He didn't try to get. Get the hands off his neck. He just went, regain your composure, sir.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I never did notice about him, about Gordon, that he liked to drink a lot of vodka while he was working.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Were you down in Florida?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

How did you get to know him?

[Steve Austin]

It was one of the biggest thrills of my career was to commentate with him, you know, because I grew up watching him. And so I got to do color commentary with him, and the. He would always have. What I loved about it was he was so classy. Had a drink and a smoke, but in the same hand. So. So he has, you know, the drink he's holding with his hand, but the two. The two big fingers are off to the little bit off the glass with a cigarette in his hand, and he'd smoke. Take his. Take a smoke off of the thing, and then he'd take a sip of the drink, and I was like, oh, just so cool. And he had those. Those Cuban shirts he always wore, but he had a cough button, like, so. And, man, when he had. He hit that thing, you know, from all the years of smoking, but, man, what a class act he was. Oh, he was amazing.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

What did you learn anything from him as far as prep goes, because I know, like, because I'm pretty good friends with Jim Ross and every time I've seen Jim Ross wasn't. Rarely. But when he's, when he's getting ready to do something, dude where it's pay per view or television, he's got notes out the ass. He knows everybody's history. Of course, he's obviously involved with a lot of the operational procedures, but that dude does his homework. He's prepared. How was Gordon? Was he like that or was he just a dude? Just called it like he saw it.

[Steve Austin]

He. He didn't need any preparation. He just, he, he did all his preparation, I guess, at home. But I mean, he knew, I mean, because he was in the Florida territory for 20 years, so he knew all the history, so he didn't have to prepare, I guess. And I don't know, I mean, I don't think I was privy to that. I wasn't at that level yet. I was just, you know, the kid. I don't even work in three months at that point, other than the seven to nine matches that I had before.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So if you were just starting in the business or young in a business, how annoying were you to him? Did you get on his nerves or were you smart enough to stay?

[Steve Austin]

I stayed back. You know, I annoyed the boys, but he was, he was, he was office too. So, you know, I didn't, you know, and the commentators always kind of kept off, you know, to the commentators. You know, refs stay with refs, the boys stay with the boys. Enhancement guys stay with enhancement guys. It's, you know, it's the class system.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So who's your favorite announcer of all time?

[Steve Austin]

My three favorites are four favorites. Jim Ross, Lance, Russell, Gordon, solely, and believe it or not, Joey Styles. Those first, those first two years I was in ecw, he was. That was Joey's two finest years. I mean, and he was as good as anybody, I thought. Jim Ross. I loved the old Jim Ross when he was with Michael Hayes for the uwf. Yeah, that I thought. I, I don't. I mean, this is just my opinion, but I felt like he wasn't as jaded then. Like, you know, maybe so. Not that, not that he wasn't amazing, you know, he was amazing from the first time I saw him to the last time I saw him. And he'll always be amazing because he's just that good. But I always felt like, and maybe it was the politics, but looking back, like, when he was working for uwf, he was younger And I just felt like he was. Wasn't as jaded as he became once he got to WCW and or wwe when the politics game just came in and just, you know, he had a fight for his life all the time, you know, I mean, and Vince always trying to get rid of him because he was too old, which is so stupid. I mean, age has nothing to do with greatness. So I don't know. I mean, but as much as I love the old Jim Ross, I also, you know, the, the later he got, the better he got as well. So it, you know, it's like it was. I don't know, it's two different flavors of the same guy that are both fantastic, man.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I saw him, you know, because I grew up watching a lot of stuff, Watched nwa. I didn't get WWF yet then. I hadn't gotten. I didn't get AWA in his prime. I caught it on the dvd.

[Steve Austin]

You didn't get to watch Rod Trongaard.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

No, but I got a chance. I was watching Bill Watts Power Pro Wrestling where Jim Ross was doing the commentary with Michael PSA's Prissy Sissy.

[Steve Austin]

Right.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I mean, that was a great combination.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, it was amazing.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And you know, God named Jim was young. He was just full of enthusiasm. He just had a great. He just had. He was. Jim was a natural born storyteller. And then when he went to nwa, it was the same, you know, same shit. It was all good stuff. And he came to WWF or WCW and then wwf. I just always loved his commentating towards the end or towards the end with the cans on being overproduced. I said, man, I could tell he's been overproduced, right? Because, man, when Jim's just doing his shit and just working with whoever he's calling with that, he's awesome. But I thought when. When they put the cans on him and just started giving him too much in his ears, I think it was

[Steve Austin]

just discombobulated, which I think is why I gravitated to the uwf, because he was. I'm sure he had carte blanche because, I mean, Watts was going to, you know, tell him this and that, but. But once he was out there, he was, you know, doing. Doing his thing, you know, and.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, but also when you, if you, when you remember stuff or if I remember stuff from, from that, I'm. I'm remembering it for what it was and how old I was at the time.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So the impressions are much more different. Even, Even if I watch that stuff back today, I realize how Good. He is.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Or was.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, I, I bet, I bet if I watched them together, I would say the later Jim Ross was way better. But my memory of him in uwf, because it was such a, a formative, like a formative moment for me watching that show because that, until ECW came along, I thought was the best wrestling show I'd ever seen. I mean, and I grew up on Florida Championship Wrestling, but the uwf, man, it was like, it was like, it's what RAW became and what ECW became. It was just, it was a house show. Tv, you know, the crowd was live at Tulsa. My God, it's all breaking down here at Tulsa. You know, the angles were so tight. You know, even the job, the squash matches, you know, they had, I guess they had some guy to Libyan, remember just the generic Libyan. I don't remember the Libyan Libyan, but I mean, but they had so many guys that could work, like Bill Wild, Bill Irwin, what a worker. And then they turned him into the Goon, you know, just sad, you know,

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

but going back to Joey Styles and. Because ECW was just lit up on fire there for a little bit and

[Steve Austin]

he was awesome and he was doing it by himself. Yeah, that's hard. I mean, a one man team.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

You know, same with Lance Russell.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

When think about Lance Russell was he could interview a deaf mute, ask the question and then answer it for him. And he did that with so many guys.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. And what I loved about Lance Russell was he was, you knew, he was rooting for the baby face. He was trying to be partial, but he, but he couldn't quite like Gordon solely was always partial, you know, I mean, he, I mean, he was always down the middle, slightly partial, but because, you know, there's good versus evil, so he had to be on good side. But Lance Russell, you knew, was like, you know, oh, come on. Oh, come on, Eddie. Oh, you'll get more than what you got right now. Just. And he did it for so long by himself, if I remember, before Dave Brown came along and just trying to, you know, because. And then he knew when to back out, let the action speak for itself. Like he didn't just have a wall of sound. Same with Joey Styles. Like he knew when to pull back, let the action speak, jump back in and. But you know, Joey also had Paulie producing him, so that's another, you know, that definitely helped him. Not that Joey didn't do it, you know, the, the leg work, but, but he also had Paulie in his ear.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

This, this is Steve Austin on The leash. So what did you think when you first ended up down at ecw? Because that was a little bit different than anything that was going on at the time.

[Steve Austin]

I had seen the show on tv, and so. And when. As soon as the first time I saw an episode, like when I left WWE and I was supposed to go to Smoky Mountain, and Cornette kept saying he was gonna bring me in and kept pushing it back a month, another month, another month. Thank God he did, because in the meantime, I was living in Philly, which is where the indie. The indie hub is, so I could get more bookings. And I. And I. And all I heard was, ECW is garbage. So I didn't think about even going. But then I watched an episode, and it was the greatest TV show I'd ever seen. It reminded me to uwf. And I was like, I got to be on this show. And. And then I called DDP up, and I said, you're good friends with Paulie. Get me on the show. So he called Paulie and then Paulie. So he calls Paulie. Paulie says, all right, I'll do it. I'll bring him in. And so ddp. So I'd been out all night the night before, and I got home, like, you know, one. You know, two in the afternoon. I was all coked up the night before. All of a sudden, my. My roommate wakes me up. He's like, ddp's on the phone. He says, you got to talk to him now. I'm like, so wake out of my. My stupor. And I'm like, what? What? He goes, paul, he's gonna call you in, like, five minutes. I'm like, all right. So Paulie. So the phone now. I'm trying to stay awake for, like, five minutes. The phone rings. I pick it up. Paulie goes, I'll call you right back. He calls back a few minutes later. I'm still trying to fight the stupor. Tells me when I'm starting the whole nine yards. I'm like, thanks, man. So I'm like, yeah, that's great. DDP calls. I called ddp. I'm like, yeah, I got the job. He's like, when do you start? I go, I have no idea. Totally spaced the whole phone call. So then I was like, man, I don't know when my starting date is. So I wait. I watched on the show that, like, the next town, next time they were in that area was whatever, like, next Friday or something. So I was like, I'll show up. I know it's not when I start. But I'll show up and just kind of weasel my way and try and schmooze my way to find out when I am supposed to start. So I. Then. So I'm driving to the town, but nobody knows where the show is. I don't know the name of the building. I know it's at a high school, and I know it was a high school named after somebody famous, like an astronaut or somebody, but I couldn't remember the name. And so I'm like, crap. So I go, where's the. So I go into, like, a 7 11. I go, is there a high school around here with it with, like, an astronaut name? They're like, yeah, it's over there. So I go to their wrong school. Must. Must not be an astronaut. Must be like a. Like a president. So I went to another school. Nope, not that. How many schools are there named after famous people? I go to a third school. I'm like, oh, that's it. But now it's getting late, and the show's getting ready to end, and I'm like, crap. Or at least I think it's getting ready to end because it's getting late. I'm like, oh, I got to get in there. So I come in there, and I just kind of mosey my way into the locker room, and Paul, he's like, what are you doing here? You don't start for a couple weeks. I was like, oh, I know that. I just want to come by and say hi. When do I start?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So, Dave, had you created a raven gimmick yet?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, yeah, I created that, and that's when I. And then I created the character, and I. But I knew I needed a TV show to do it on, and so that's why I was wanted to go to Smoky Mountain, because I figured if I can do it on their show, I'll get over. And then I could hopefully. Hopefully go back to New York. And so when DDP explained the character to Paulie, he thought it was going to be like, a grunge version or like a. You know, a kind of a com. Still thought I was gonna be a comedy character, but when he saw it, he realized what I was doing, and he. And he actually. He knew the character better than I did at first because I was still developing it, and I wasn't realizing how much I was taking from me, you know, from my own life, you know, because I was putting the pieces together. But when you look inside, you don't always see what's there, because you don't want to. And, and luckily he, you know, promoters always see, or bookers always see this show through a particular town. And like Vince saw himself as the Million Dollar man and, and Lex Luger, the Patriot and Dusty, like Dusty loved PN News even though he didn't get over, but because he was a rapping big man and, and Paulie saw the world through Raven's eyes and dreamers eyes. And so it just enabled me to work with him. You know, no matter how much I annoyed him, it just is the most wonderful collaborative experience I ever had. I mean it really was that, that much fun.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

How would you describe the Raven character to someone who you're about to turn on to ECW Wrestling? But okay, but you got to check out this Raven guy. Okay, who's he? What does he do?

[Steve Austin]

He's a tortured poetic genius who blames everybody else for his problems and refuses to look inward and blame. Yeah, very, pretty much. That's simple enough. I mean, you know, that's pretty much

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

it when you think about it. When you look back at that, that locker room dude, there were some lights out promos in that territory.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

How long did it come, how long did it take for you? You've always had a gift of gab, but channel through the Raven, you took it to the highest level.

[Steve Austin]

Thank you.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

How long did it take you to come up with the shit that you were going to say with, with respect to setting up a match? Talking about your opponent, your situation or yourself, just promos in general. What approach did you take?

[Steve Austin]

I'd love to say that I knew from the beginning, but I didn't. Like, my first promo was like 30 seconds because I still was feeling, feeling it out. And you know, I think I actually, I think I remember it. The world is full of kings and queens they'll blind your eyes and steal your dreams it's heaven and hell Kurt Cobain didn't make it and he left behind an entire generation of something. Quote the Raven nevermore. Because I already had the catchphrase when I came up with the name. And so that was like the best I could pull off at that point. And, and, and then I got. There was a period where I was with Mick Foley where like he would, he was, I was managing him, but he, you know, while I was wrestling and, and Mick probably cut the single best promos of his career and maybe in the business, you know.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

And you know, talking about Uncle Eric and Uncle Eric didn't love him. And of course then I would just go quote the Raven Evermore and steal the heat. So I always aspired to do a promo of that level and I finally nailed one and it was in some building, I forget where, I think in Boston, but. But yeah. So I mean it took a while to really hit the nail on the head. Like I feel like I had more in the tank because. But because I didn't get the run in New York. I don't like. People say, what's your favorite match? I go, or what's your best match? I'm like, I don't think I had it. I never, I know. I don't think I ever got to have it. But, but of what I did have my. I, there's about five that I really stand out. But the, the promo wise, there was just one promos like eight minutes or something. And, and I remember when I, when I cut it, I nailed it. And I remember Shay Douglas afterwards, he'd already cut a promo earlier. He's like, Paulie, I gotta go again. And I'm like, ah, bastard. And so Paulie Shane pulled out. I remember this. He pulled out every. I can't remember the promo I cut, but, but I remember I quoted Billy Corgan in it. And it's 19, 1979. But, but, but Shane pulled out every trick. He's like, he opens a promo, throws a chair against the wall. He goes, they won't let the franchise talk about this, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. And I was like, you could try, but you're not going to step on my finest hour.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And Shame would drop some badass promo.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. Oh, he could talk.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. And so was. And Mick was too.

[Steve Austin]

That Mick was, Mick was just. He was in a zone there for like when he turned heel, it was just the story he told. I mean, and that's. To me, that's the greatest heel is the guy who has a point of view that's either just a little skewed or he's right about everything. But he just takes it too far, you know, and just abuses his, he abuses the fact that he has that point of view.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

What did you do before you went out on those ECW shows? Just as far as pills getting ready. Straight up.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I mean up.

[Steve Austin]

No, I just, you know, like the painkillers became like an army, like an armor for me, you know, it felt like a shield of armor. You know, it, it, you know, you're, it puts you in no pain. And that no pain feeling was like a coat of armor for me. And then when I quit doing drugs and I had to wrestle without it for the first year. So, you know, I. It was more. All of a sudden I had that anxiety again from, you know, that I you. That I hadn't had in years, other than like for big matches or something, and because my coat of armor was gone, you know, so. But where I really screwed up was, was when I started, like, you know, because I drink after the shows, I never drank before a show. I prided myself on never doing that. And once I took that first beer before a show, that was the beginning of the slow descent into madness.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

What happened?

[Steve Austin]

No, no, I mean, that's just that. That. That's when my. When my drinking. And that led to my drinking and drugging becoming so heavy that I. That eventually I got pancreatitis and I had to stop drinking, which led to my drugging becoming so much worse. But if I never would have started drinking before the show, I never would have became an alcoholic and never would have drank. Because drinking every night's one thing, but drinking all day and all nights, a whole nother matter.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

God dang, dude. When we were riding down the road, you mean. Brian, I'll even remember you drinking.

[Steve Austin]

No, I mean, I didn't drink much. I didn't take a lot of pill. I didn't take any pills. I mean, it just, you know, I don't know. You know, I just. I found a way to deal with all my emotional issues by pouring a drink on them and pouring pills in there, and so I didn't have to deal with it, you know.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So when did you quit all that stuff and go back to wrestling with nothing?

[Steve Austin]

Before I went to wwe. Before? Yeah, before I went to wwe, I got clean and sober and. And I stayed clean and sober for a long time. I went off, I, you know, I had a few runs off, you know, afterwards, you know, with pills, but, you know, for the most part, it was back in 99, 2000. I don't know when. Whenever. Whenever I went back. Whenever I went to WWE as Raven, that was when I quit, you know, and then I quit everything. I mean, everything. Everything. Probably at least seven, eight years ago. Maybe 10 years. It could be longer. I mean, I don't know. It's. I never put a date on it. I never went to aa. And not that that's not a good thing, but to me, that was just like listening to people brag. I'd want to tell, like, if I went to a meeting, I would just want to tell. I got a better story than that, you know, it would have been a Competition for me. So that wasn't the way for me. It was just a matter of. Although on the other hand, playing, you know, devil's advocate, I saw an addictionologist, you know, the psychiatrist who specializes in addiction medicine. And he said, you know, you may not actually be an addict, you just goes, but I've never seen anybody abuse drugs more than you.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Well, dude, when I was drinking, I would just drink to pass time because I was bored. I just wanted something to do. I could kill a lot of hours drinking a lot of whiskey or vodka, whatever.

[Steve Austin]

Life's long.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, but I mean, and it's easy to do because it's a pleasurable experience. I don't drink as much anymore. But I just got finished talking to a guy a couple weeks ago. He came on the show. He was a heavy duty drug guy and just a raging alcoholic. And then he knew, he came to one day, just had that. Come to Jesus meeting that moment. And it was like, dude, I'm going to die. If you don't stop today, you're going to die. And so he cleaned up from there on out. He turned into an ultra racer. Started off, I mean, just running on a treadmill. He could run about 15 seconds at a time. He went from 320 down to whatever, 180 over the course of the time. And he started running, you know, marathons and ultra marathons. Yeah. Oh my God, 100 mile races.

[Steve Austin]

That's ridiculous.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So, but he, it was almost like, you know, he just needed something do positive. So what did you do or what was your approach to putting all that shit away?

[Steve Austin]

Well, it. Well, first of all, I did so much ecstasy, I fried my brain cells to the point where I literally like, you know, we've been talking for two hours. I wouldn't remember what I did before I came to your house. That's how bad the, the problem that my brain got addled and. But luckily, you know, I had like this alternative healer, this chiropractor who, who knew like every form of alternative healing and kind of put me back together, you know, with all these esoteric, you know, techniques. And he put my brain back together and then, then it was a matter of, well, never doing, never doing drugs, never doing ecstasy again. I already wrote coke off a long time before. A long time before that. You know, I already rode booze off because I got pancreatitis. I'm never. That was the most painful thing I've ever lived through. It was eight day. I got pancreatitis. I was supposed to be at tv. I Supposed to fly out for tv. And my stomach, like, you know, the pancreas, like, it's above your stomach, like, where the solar plexus is. It started hurting so bad. And my buddy who's was going to med school, he's like, you got pancreatitis? We're going to the hospital. They put me in a bed. They said, do you do drugs? And so, of course, I thought if I told them yes, they wouldn't give me any. So I said no. So they never gave me enough meds to stop the pain because my. My level of tolerance was so high. So I was howling at nights, and you can't eat any food until your pancreas clears. So no food, no water, no nothing for like eight days. And the first four days, I mean, I was just. I was literally howling in pain at night. They would just close my tour and just. I just have to suffer. And so I never was going to drink again. So that was done. You know, the ecstasy that was done. The coke was already done before the injectable drugs. I wrote that off, you know, and that's when I knew I was coming to the end of the line. And then it was just a matter of, I'm not going back to any of those things. So, you know, I already checked them off the list. There's nowhere to go anyway. So then I became a shopping addiction. Started wasting money left and right because, you know, you got to. Got to transfer the addiction until you deal with it. And then I started seeing a psychologist and dealt with it and, you know, figured out what my problems was. My. My baggage was, you know, and, you know, I still got problems and I still got baggage, but now I'm in. Now I can deal with it, you know, in a healthy manner as opposed to, you know, a stupid manner.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I mean, like, well, how do you deal with it? I mean, like, is there something. Is there a trigger that will set you off? And like, hey, man, myself, like, all right.

[Steve Austin]

So, like, I get anxiety when I gotta make phone calls. Like, I hate making phone calls to people. Like, when you called earlier this morning, I'm like. I'm like, all right. So I pick up the phone and I'm like. And so in my head, I'm going, I don't want to be on the phone too long. I don't want to be on too short. I don't want to, you know. You know, and you start thinking you're like, you know, because, you know, you don't want to aggravate your buddy, you know, What I mean, but. So you don't want to drag the call, but you don't want to cut him off too soon while he's still happy to be on the phone. And. And I'm like, so. But those kind of things make me nutty. And so I just, but now I just go, all right, well, either deal with it, you know, and just take a deep breath, deal with it, and just play it by ear like you do the rest of life or, you know, or suffer. So, you know, you just, you talk to yourself, you know, so you try

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

to stay off the phone.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, so I stay off the phone, basically. No, I mean, it's just, that's just a small example. You know what I mean? So, you know, but then you have friends you can talk to that you just talk to, and it's like, you know, it's no big deal. But then when you haven't talked to somebody in a while. But that's just an example. I mean, I like doing stand up. You know, when I first started doing stand up comedy, like, I didn't think it was gonna be anything. I thought, you know, I'm not gonna be nervous at all. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't nervous. Got on stage, I, man, my knees started shaking like, you know, your leg shakes? My leg shook so hard for the entire 45 minutes of stand up gig. But, you know, it's either, either you deal with it or you don't deal with it, you know, so you just, you talk to yourself. You like, just relax, take a deep breath, you know what I mean? So you just, you get better at teaching yourself positive reinforcement techniques, you know, and, or, you know, or you just ignore it and stuff it down and let it come out another day.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

What is about or how has your experience been with doing stand up and hanging around other comedians? Because you always hear the thing, man. Comedians, some of the most miserable people on earth. But making people laugh makes, gives them, gives them joy.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, yeah, it's weird. I haven't had enough. I've done, I don't know, I only do like 8, 10 gigs a year, so I don't do that many. So, you know, and I started doing it like in 2011 or 12 or something, but then I had the shoulder surgery, which my mom passed away in 2013. And then like a week later I had shoulder surgery and the, my shoulders were so bad that I went to the Atlanta Braves. The head of the orthodox orthopedic head orthopedic surgeon for Atlanta Braves. He said I had the two worst shoulders he's ever seen. So I was pretty proud of that. So that took a year out of my life over, over a year to rehab it, you know, and it still did. I mean I can, you can see, I can't hardly rotate, I can't hardly lift it, but it's out of pain. So, you know, so it was successful, but it took over a year. And then I was happy for the first time, just doing nothing, you know, I wasn't working out, I wasn't doing nothing. I was watching TV and I was like, I like this, you know, I play with my dog, you know, my ex wife's my best friend, so we see each other every day and I was like, man, I like this. So six months go by after the year, still did nothing. And then finally I said, ah, it's probably time to start making a little money, you know, but I, but I'm pretty financially set so, you know, so I'm lucky, I'm very lucky about that. So then I was like, wow, but I should still have income coming in. And so then I gradually started, you know, doing indie bookings again after like a, you know, year and a half off and, but still being a sloth and lazy, I still, you know, don't, you know, I'll go three months where I work like you know, eight, ten shows and then I'll go three months and not work a single show and but I find if I, if I'm home too long without going on the road that I get antsy and I start getting, you know, I start feeling, I start feeling insecure because you start because you have nothing to make yourself feel good about because you're not doing anything. So watching tv. So then I go back on the road, I feel better about myself, you know, make some money, come home. And so I gradually started to do stand up again. I guess I didn't even start doing that again until this year. So I did a couple like three, four, five gigs in Indiana, did some gig somewhere else then and some guy just texted me or book called me or emailed me or whatever to book me for some more stand up gigs. So I just, I'm really just trying to enjoy life, you know, I don't hurt other than the sleep disorder. I feel great. I'm happy. I like my life, love my ex wife, love my dog. I love watching TV because that like you say, you know, you get bored so you're drinking, you kill the time, you know, there's so much good TV and to me you know, that's why I loved wrestling because it was a, it was an ulta, it was the ultimate morality play. It was good versus evil, you know, which is what, you know, which is what any good story's about. And it was, it was like opera for the masses. But now I, you know, I don't have the same enjoyment, but I found that enjoyment I found in watching wrestling, you know, and watching so many other shows like the Blacklist or, you know, there's just, there's so much good TV now.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, but hanging around, if you're doing a comedy clubs, I mean you're not working on steady. But are they like the boys? Do they take you in?

[Steve Austin]

Same same thing, same thing. It's, it's the exact same. Except you don't have to lace up your boots.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Right.

[Steve Austin]

Which is a pain in the ass, you know, Remember like you'd be like, I don't feel like lacing my boots up.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

You're still in the ring.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, I got a tag match next week in Montreal. I think you're a heal a baby

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

and are you making a comeback.

[Steve Austin]

This, this is, this is my psychology is I don't want to take any bumps anymore. I refuse to take any bumps because I don't feel like getting beat up anymore. So as a baby face, come in on the shine, let my partner take the heat and then I'll get the hot tag. No bumps, no, no fluff, no muss, no, you know, and, and then I, but the fans aren't going to notice because they're not there to see me get beat up. They're there to see me make a comeback. And I got a partner, you know, whoever the tag team partner is to get beat up. So, and that's, that's the great thing about wrestling is you can hide anything you don't like. Guys are always like, you know, guys are like, ah, you know, I'm injured, I can't work, you know. Yeah, you work around it, you know, like when me and Pillman first started feuding, he, he heard his, his quad and he was really worried because he wasn't going to be able to do all the high flying. And you know, this was his first feud with somebody who it wasn't going to be just, you know, match versus match, you know, high flying match like with Liger or something. It was actually hopefully going to be a storyline and I'm like, man, you don't need to, you know, because he had never worked, you know, like Memphis style, you know, and so remember he used to Love this spot I showed him where you go to shake hands, but the guy. The guy won't do it. The baby face goes, wait a minute. And puts his left hand out and then you shake left handed so you can hip toss him with the right.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah. And so garbage. Yeah, I use that spot so many times.

[Steve Austin]

But that's. But that's the whole thing. Yeah, but that's the thing is people come to be emotionally moved.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Right.

[Steve Austin]

And so, you know, if you tell your story right and you have your psychology, there's no need to take a million bumps. Right. Finley never leaves his feet.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

As amazing matches. And I used to come back from the locker room and I'd have take. I'd have taken two bumps at the most, you know, and he'd go, you took too many. And he was serious, you know? You know, I mean, you know that.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

How does it work out there where the places you're going, it's.

[Steve Austin]

I mean, you know, I don't know, it's. They're just the usual. Oh, that's right. You never done indies, have you?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Oh, yeah.

[Steve Austin]

It's a lot of fun. I mean, you get there, you know, there's always somebody to pick you up. So you don't have to go get a rental car, which is fun. You know, you go to. You go to sleep in a ride to the. To the building. You know, you get to the building, you know, you're basically to rule the roost because you're the name, you know, everybody. You can do anything. It's like working with guys where you can say, look, this is what I want to do, you know? And they're like, wow, I want to get this and I want to get that. And I'm like, just trust me. And then after the match, they'll go, man, that was the most reaction I ever got them. And. But we didn't even do anything. I'm like, yeah, because that's what wrestling is.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah.

[Steve Austin]

Shakespeare, you know.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So how you would laugh on the road without anything? Like. Like, if I was going on the road. Well, I'm not gonna go on the road, but even if I travel, dude, I'm good just because I'm good with myself. Right. But if you're like, you were. I mean, is there any impending.

[Steve Austin]

No, no, no, no. I just, you know, I mean, sometimes I'll be like, man, I wouldn't mind going out. But then I'm like, what am I going to do for. If I go out? I don't. I don't care about picking up chicks anymore. I've. I've sowed my oats. I've sowed more oats than I can count. I've done everything I've ever gonna. I really don't even want to go out. It's just then you start thinking, well, I'm gonna be bored in a hotel room. But I just read a lot, you know, Or I watch. Like I said, I watch tv.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

What are you reading?

[Steve Austin]

I just started. I haven't started it yet, but I just bought Norm MacDonald's new book, and I was reading this book. What I'm reading mainly, I haven't finished yet, is this book on crop circles. It's really cool.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

And apparently, I wonder how they make the damn things.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, they. I haven't got that far yet. But it's not. There's. There's people that make the fake ones, and then there actually are real ones, and there's like, all these differences in between. And like, that when you see the photographs, like, the photographs of the real ones compared to the fake ones, you're like, holy crap. I mean, it really is different. You know, I saw a UFO one time. I was walking my dog. Yeah, it's a shoot, you know, Like, I believe in that stuff, but I was walking my dog and I saw this star up in the sky. I thought it was a. Like a. I thought it was a plane at first, but it wasn't moving. So I'm like, ah. You know, and it was really bright, and it didn't seem like it was that far away. And then there was these three bright lights near it, but much smaller. And so looking at this thing and waiting for it to see if it moves or not. And then all of a sudden, one of the smaller ones just starts moving and then stopped again. It's like, holy shit, that's got to be a ufo. Because nothing just stays in space and then moves and it stops again. Because it couldn't have been a helicopter because it was way too far away for that. But, you know, I mean, you believe what you believe, you know?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

All right, you believe what you believe. You said on your podcast the Raven Effect on podcast one on the Jericho Network, you always like talking about conspiracy theories.

[Steve Austin]

I don't believe in this at all. Flat Earth. We had this Flat Earth guy on, and he was like. He was serious. He was. He believes it 100%. Like, I've emailed him afterwards, you know what I mean? And. And tried to give him. What about this theory is like, nope, that doesn't. That. That doesn't Prove it, because this, this, and this. And. And he absolutely believes 100% that the Earth is flat.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

What about. Did man go to the moon?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I was watching enough stuff on that. That, like, that guy, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, he goes. It would have been harder to fake going to the moon than to actually go, because to do what they needed to do, it just would have been so much more difficult. But it is amazing, though, that now you could use. We have more power technology in our phones and our iPhones than what they had to get to the moon, like, with all the computing power.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Right.

[Steve Austin]

It's crazy.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

So who's next on your podcast?

[Steve Austin]

I try not to have too many guests. I don't. I don't like to bog it down with guests, because me, subject matter, I don't know. Whatever. We get there, whatever, like, we just shoot the shit. You know, me and Busby, we just have. We were. We've been best friends for, like, 15 years, and so. But we don't. We haven't. We drifted apart, like, you know, because he moved to the west coast because he was. Because he's a screenwriter. And. And then we got back, and then we started talking again, and then I had him co host a show with me, and it's so. We don't even really talk during the week. We just. Anything we have to say to each other, we wait till we get on the podcast, and then we just talk for an hour, hour, 10 minutes. And then. And then we're both exhausted and we're like. And in the show, you know, but it's. You know, we just, you know, we talk about everything from wrestling to.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

To.

[Steve Austin]

To the Flat Earth guy to what movie we saw or what, you know, ufc, you know, we were talking about, like, the other day, we were talking about Daniel Cormier. He's got a. It's like, this got to be a nightmare for him. You know, he finally. He fights Jones. He can't beat him. He gets beat clean, and then he finds out Jones is all sauced up,

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

and he's like, yeah.

[Steve Austin]

He's like, how do I. Like, how do you think? You know, Cormier is so prideful. Like, how's his brain has to be doing cartwheels, you know, he's one of

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

my favorite fighters, but a lot of people like to boo the guy. I don't understand it. Why is he the heel?

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, he's like. It was like Bret Hart, you know, when Bret Hart was the babyface, but the people booed him. And cheered Sean instead.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

How did you approach Chris? Or did Chris approach you to do the Raven Effect?

[Steve Austin]

The. I had talked to Chris before once his podcast got big and suggested doing a podcast with him, but he didn't really have the time. And then eventually he decided to start his own network. And so he called me up and said, you know, I want to. I'm gonna start with Conan. And then it would give you a show. But then in the meantime, he wanted to go with Team Tiger. Awesome. So he got them. So a couple more months go by and I'm thinking, oh, this is a rib. And then, then he goes. Then he gave Lance Storm and Don Callis, you know, long time running buddies, a show. And I'm like, all right, I met. That makes sense. But is this a rib? Cause three more months go by, then he gets wanted to have another variety. So he had these conspiracy guys on. And I'm like, okay, this is a rib now. And then finally he's like, all right, now we're going to start your show. And I'm like, all right, sweet. You know, he's been great to work for.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Are you doing. How many shows have you done now?

[Steve Austin]

I don't know. We've been doing it since February, so maybe six months worth. 20.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Enjoy it.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah, I love it. I mean, you know, let's face it, I love listening to myself talk. Anyway,

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

well, tell everybody where they can find the show.

[Steve Austin]

You can find a show on Podcast. Podcast one or Apple Podcast. It's a show's called the Raven Effect. It comes drops every Monday. What else? Yeah, even if you don't like it, just leave a five star review anyway. And you could say it sucks, but leave five stars and then we'll call it even called Squaresville.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Yeah, social media.

[Steve Austin]

Yeah. At the Raven Effect. And. And basically everything's at the Raven Effect. Facebook's at the Raven Effect, Twitter's at the Raven Effect. Yeah, that's where I really screwed up. Because I always thought social media, I was like, I don't need to have social media. There's nothing I like, I had no reason to engage it. And so all of a sudden, so I only have, you know, so for my level of celebrity, I only have like 60,000 followers, which, you know, dreamers got two and a half million or something. So I figure I should be at least somewhere between the two of them. And so. But because I never engaged on social media, so. So. And, but that's where your audience comes from for a podcast. So I'm like, so I'm like, but so I'm doing really well considering the race that, you know, the. The amount of followers I have compared to downloads. But, you know, I really got to find a way, like by doing your show. I did Corolla show the other day to get my name out, you know, and to get my, you know, so people can see I'm just. This is how I am in real life, you know, me. And so what you see is what you get. Same thing on the podcast. Although there's a. There's a much. There's a. It's everything is emphasized towards being funny, towards comedy. I try to make everything, you know, the. Making people laugh I think is the most important thing, you know, or at least entertained. And so, you know, so hopefully people will go, yeah, you know what? I like listening to this schmuck. He's a pretty funny guy. And tune into the show.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Can you send us an out?

[Steve Austin]

Yes, I can.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Scott Levy of the Raven Effect signing off. I'm Steve Austin, coming back to wrap up his show. We're out. All right, everybody, give me the go home cues. Time to wrap up his podcast and ride off in the sunset. Before I do that, I want to thank my guests, the Raven. Scott Levy, host of his own podcast called the Raven Effect. Him and his buddy shooting the breeze, talking shit, all kinds of crazy shit. And of course, you've got the crazy, awesome, wonderful special effects created by Scott Levy himself. Dude's a sharp cat fucking out there and he's a good friend of mine. Check out his podcast. It was good seeing you in person, dude. Hey, man. Here's something for you guys to watch. Right now I'm in the middle of watching the Hell in the Cell pay per view. I'm not through the pay per view all the way yet. Maybe I'll have a few comments about it. I haven't seen the event yet. So far, so good on what I've seen. And then if you ain't seen my show, which is on CMT right now, I highly suggest you set your recording device on your channel box. Someone sent me a tweet the other day that you. No one uses a DVR anymore. Well, that's what the fuck I call it. I call it a DVR. It's on the fucking DirecTV. That's what the fuck we get. Yeah, man, I just hit the record button. So if it ain't a dvr, I don't know what the fuck it's called. But anyway, check it out. This season it's building right now. We're three episodes in. We got the women coming up next week and things are fixing to start ramping up. I'm telling you, set your DVR or your recording device, whatever the hell you use for Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge on CMT. It's on Tuesday nights, 109 Central all across the United States of America. If you've never seen this show, give it an opportunity. Just set your DVR and recording an episode. If you don't like it, then turn it off after that. But I guarantee you this is the baddest, toughest, coolest show on television. And that's the bottom line because I said so. That's something to watch. And as far as all those badass T shirts I'm wearing on Broken Skull Challenge, you can find [e-mail] SteveAustin and if you're thirsty after watching that badass show, I got a good beer for you. It's called Steve Austin's Broken Skull ipa brewed by El Segundo Brewing Company. Stop by the brewery. If you come down here to Los Angeles and you're visiting on a trip, go buy the brewery at 140 Main street or go to Whole Foods and Total Wines. If you live in California, that's where you can find my beer. If you don't live in cali, check out insidetheseller.com and see if they ship to a state that you're living in. Hey man, if you're looking to get either the cold steel Broken Skull knife or the New Working man knife, you can find them at my new Amazon store. Amazon has the best price on both knives. Both extremely high quality knives and they are badass. Everybody needs a pocket knife. Whether it's to open a ladder, cut a piece of rope, a seat belt, save your life, whatever. Just go to Amazon.com shop Steve Austin everybody got to have a pocket Knife. I got to say one more thank you to all the fine sponsors of the Steve Austin Show. That's how I'm able to do this podcast for you twice a week for free. You can find all my [e-mail] just click on the Killer Deals button at the top of the page and then click on the Steve Austin show banner. Folks, if you want to follow me on social media, I am on Twitter and Instagram teveaustonbsr and I want to share more stories like the one I read at the opening of the show. If you have any stories that you want to share with me, if you have any more questions, comments or want me to cover a subject that you want to hear about. I want to start doing that more with the direction I'm taking in the podcast. So send all of your questions, comments, suggestions, whatever to questionsteveaustinshow.com you send it in, I'll research it and give you my 411. On it. Folks, until next time, my name is Steve Austin and I will catch your ass down the road. Download new episodes of Steve Austin Unleashed every [e-mail] that's podcastone.com.

[Steve Austin]

Pluto tv has thousands of free movies and tv shows.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

You swear?

[Steve Austin]

If I'm lying, I'm dying.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

With movies like Titanic, Dreamgirls and Gladiator, why you're not entertained? And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Fairly Odd Parents, and Ghosts, Pluto TV is always free.

[Steve Austin]

Huzzah.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Pluto TV stream now pay. Never. He gave me a book on art forgery. I found myself drawn to these old masters. How did these artists take paint from a palette, arrange it on a canvas? I began to unlock the secrets. I was a storehouse of knowledge of how to create an illusion, present it to a experienced expert, manipulate his mind and convince him and bring him to the inevitable conclusion that the painting is genuine. We flooded the market with my paintings and I couldn't believe what I did. I couldn't believe it. Then the dominoes started falling and eventually the FBI were led to my door. They uncovered a mountain of evidence against me, but they never actually got you.

[Steve Austin]

At this point, you've sold a lot.

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

You've got like a million dollars in cash. You sold one painting for 717,000. Why did it go away? Why did you never get indicted?

[Steve Austin]

And how are we having this conversation?

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

I guess it's the greatest story of all to hear how Ken Parenti made millions in art forgery, dodged the mafia and the FBI. Subscribe to the Jordan Harbinger show and

[Steve Austin]

check out episode 282 in Apple Podcasts,

[Scott Levy (The Raven)]

Spotify or wherever you're listening now.