Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin

[Chris B]

I was just coming in to awkwardly go "gosh, I haven't posted here for a while, and I don't want to be all 'read my shit' but y'know, what's that? Yes, I'll go to classifieds' and then cry for a bit. So thanks for saving me that, Keith. I owe you a pint if we ever meet.

[Onyx2]

Massively off topic but I loved that story-CV thing you put on LinkedIn recently too Chris.

[C-Rock]

I found Austins commentary of the match really interesting. Theres some great advice given by him that Im sure alot of up and coming wrestlers would find interesting like timing and positioning. Its also suprising that Austin allowed Bret to cut him, goes to show the trust he had in him.

 

Are there any other videos with wrestlers commentating over them out of curiosity?

[Brock Goldberg]

Are there any other videos with wrestlers commentating over them out of curiosity?

You mean this match or others?

 

I know Austin did the same for his WM17 match with The Rock.

[SuperBacon]

It's my favourite match of all time, and don't think anything will ever beat it for me.

 

I, like many others fell in love with wrestling when I was 5 or 6, dipped out of it during 93-96, but then October 96 time, we got Cable & Wireless, and with it, Sky Sports and WWF. Bret has always been my favourite wrestler of all time, but as soon as I saw Stone Cold, I loved him too. Their SS 96 match is a technical classic, and I loved the booking of the 97 Rumble and as mentioned, everything leading up to Mania. Final Four, the next night on Raw, Bret snapping in the cage, everything was perfect.

 

I stayed up too to watch this, and had to fake illness the next day to stay off school and watch again. I must watch it every month to 6 weeks, it's pretty much my go to thing when life gets me down. Everytime I watch it, I find something else to love more. Last time I watched it, I noticed how FUCKING GREAT Jim Ross's commentary is. It is majestic. Forget all the 'STONE COLD STONE COLD BAH GAWD' stuff, JR has never been better. From the little digs at WCW, to the "physical dissection" calls, it adds so much to the match.

 

I also think that Vince is pretty decent in this, as is Lawler (hit that drunk in the jacket), and Ken Shamrock plays his part perfectly. I was conflicted as I loved Bret, but you can't help cheer for Austin. The iconic images, the bravery, JR putting him over like a boss, he was an absolute bad ass. This match also gave us subsequently, Bret's best work on the mic, as a character, and some gold matches in 97 and Austin went from strength to strength too.

 

To conclude as well, I was 12 when this aired, and in the midst of my trying to physically fight and scream at anyone that said wrestling was gay and fake, as I would defend it so hard, and I took the tape of this in to show and tell in Year 8, did a little presentation on it, and Mr Chapman loved it so...

 

All the fucking stars. All of them.

[WyattSheepMask]

I'm currently upto August 97 of my rewatch of The Monday War era, and WWF in 97 is making me feel like a kid again. Just little things that have stuck in the memory for so long and then other things that make you go "fucking-a! I remember this!" Ivan Putski popped up for a random tag match with his "light-heavyweight" division son Scott to take on Lawler and Brian Christopher.

I watched an episode of Nitro earlier today which had my boy Steve McMichael annihilate Eddie Guerrero with a tombstone when Mongo was US Champ for a few weeks. It's a nothing match in the grand scheme of things, but I've got such vivid memories of it from when I watched it when Nitro used to be on TNT after Cartoon Network finished. It's from the same episode that had Arn Anderson giving Curt Henning the enforcer spot in the horsemen, which can't have been shown here as I didn't see that until years later, but Mongo keeping the belt I remember completely.

 

 

Are there any other videos with wrestlers commentating over them out of curiosity?

You mean this match or others?

 

I know Austin did the same for his WM17 match with The Rock.

A couple of the older WWE DVD releases had some matches with alternative commentary on them. Only ones I can think off top of my head were Chris Benoit's set, RVD's 'One Of A Kind' and I think there may have been some on one of Edge's sets, but there may have been others

 

Not sure about other videos online as I've not researched it in any detail

[Old Man Jones]

For me this is the greatest match in company history. There have been others that may have been more aesthetically impressive, but this feels like a real contest, a struggle.

 

It has a grittiness that has always fascinated me.

[zep81]

I found Austins commentary of the match really interesting. Theres some great advice given by him that Im sure alot of up and coming wrestlers would find interesting like timing and positioning. Its also suprising that Austin allowed Bret to cut him, goes to show the trust he had in him.

Are there any other videos with wrestlers commentating over them out of curiosity?

There are definitely more on some dvd releases. Two I can remember are;

 

HBK/Diesel from IYH: Good Friends Better Enemies - Shawn Michaels From the Vault DVD. Alt commentary by Shawn/Nash.

 

Mankind/Taker from King of the Ring 1998 - For All Mankind DVD. Alt commentary by Foley/Joey Styles.

 

I'm sure there is one on a HHH dvd too.

[Onyx2]

The difference on a lot of official DVDs the commentary is 90% kayfabe. Austin's are in full shoot mode and are so much more interesting because of it. I've said for aaaaages commentary like this would be such a great add-on for the Network.

[zep81]

Yeah definitely. I don't think I've seen the Austin/Rock one but I enjoyed the fuck out of listening to Austin in the Bret match.

[Guest]

In the early days of Austin's podcast he kept saying him and Bret were going to do commentary together, is the austin commentary from the podcast?

[zep81]

Yeah. Someone just put it over the match I believe. Same with the Austin/Rock one.

[Onyx2]

I just remembered Flair commentates on Rumble 1992 on his short-lived Conrad podcast. It wasn't brilliant.

[Bus Surfer]

I just remembered Flair commentates on Rumble 1992 on his short-lived Conrad podcast. It wasn't brilliant.

I actuallly still have this saved away for a rainy day. I was expecting brilliance. Say it ain't so?

 

The Bret/Austin Mania match is definitely up there for me too.

 

Old Man Jones makes a great point - it looked like an absolute struggle. Arguably, the two best performances ever produced, coming together to tell an incredible story that has never and probably won't ever, be topped.

 

Absolute magic.

[tiger_rick]

Had to give this a watch last night. Funny how we talk about whether stuff holds up. Lots of great matches from the past don't. This doesn't either, it's more advanced than anything around today. It's 20 years old but feels like the future.

 

Austin's entrance is magic. We know how brilliant the slow burn double turn is but this is another great little touch. Heels don't get entrances this cool.

 

How many times had the WWF had a brawl into the crowd at this point? I can't think of any off the top of my head. Sure Vince didn't enjoy the fella in the nWo shirt being so prominent.

 

Funny thing when you re-watch this is Lawler's comment after the Stunner that Austin can't get bret to submit if he's knocked out. JR has to scramble to explain that the match would end if someone was knocked out. You can imagine Vince kicking Lawler under the table.