[1996-10-27-WWF-Superstars] Bret Hart and Steve Austin

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Austin's reactions to Bret are a riot. This is a great segment, although Austin is light years ahead of Bret as a promo. Austin gets upset that they are winding down the segment and takes out his frustrations on a production assistant and starts smashing monitors.

[El-P]

Austin was just pure gold here.

[PeteF3]

Austin's solo interview is just as good as what we get here, where he outs McMahon as a "greedy, selfish promoter" who's pulling Monsoon's strings and wants the payday of an Austin-Bret match--hence no suspension for Austin for his actions on Pillman. Then he complains about having to fly to Stamford while they're sending camera crews to Bret's house and Pillman's house and promises to be in Cincinnati next week, setting up that ill-fated angle. But this came off great at the time.

 

On the Yearbook itself Bret has joined us, and this segment even more than the Pillmanizing incident is really what made Austin what he is--Bret is a tremendous, underrated interview but he's completely outclassed here, as just about everyone else in the business was or would be when trying to match what Austin was doing. Austin leaves Bret so effectively in the dust that he has to practically beg Bret to say anything. Then we get another example of the WWF going, "Okay, now where do we take this?" as they have Austin snap again and trash a production assistant and the studio.

 

I think this was the same Raw where Austin actually stormed the update desk as Dok Hendrix was shilling the PPV, complaining about having to wait for his segment. Despite the taped nature of the show the WWF was going all-out in its pre-taped segments to try to create a point of difference from Nitro. Truly a banner night for Stone Cold.

[Exposer]

This whole thing is great. Austin is a complete asshole here running down Bret during the main interview, harassing Dok Hendrix earlier in the show, & getting angry with the production crew so much that he launches a production guy into a ladder. Crazy moment. Austin also says he will show up at Pillman's house next week planting the seeds for that insanity. Bret is fine here & I really enjoy how he conducts himself in contrast to Austin's demeanor. Austin swallows him whole here though & Bret can't find the words to make any sort of comeback. The cops are called & Austin is escorted out of the studios to close the show as he says he's bulletproof because Vince won't let anything happen to him. Awesome. The build to Austin-Bret is in full swing & it's great to watch.

[soup23]

A good back and forth here that sets up their upcoming match. Austin is just an irritable prick and is so anti authority right now beating up production people. He still is doing it in a heel way which I appreciated. It is clear they have something with him now that can utilized.

[tim]

Austin is just killing it right now. Great contrast between the two; Bret is cool, collected, on top and confident in his position on top, while Austin is hungry and just taking every advantage to goad Bret, and he sure is petulant here in every way. Bret does seem to get a bit irritated as the interview goes on. Vince sells Austin going after the production guy and smashing the monitor really well. Austin is such an energetic presence totally unlike anything else going on in WWF.