Bauer mentions that Steamboat suffered from multiple back injuries and that was unfortunate, because he thinks Steamboat missed out on the opportunity to make an awful lot of money during the Monday Night War years in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Austin agrees and says that Steamboat was just on another level in the ring, and working with him was always a pleasure.
Bauer considers Rick Rude to be the cream of the crop in terms of WCW’s heel roster in the early-mid 90’s. He points out that Rude had a lot of issues with Vince McMahon and that resulted in him leaving WWE. Looking back now, Bauer considers this to be a good move for Rude’s career because he believes Rude would have been lost in the shuffle in WWE in the early 90’s.
Soon after Rude’s arrival in WCW, Vader made his debut in the company and together they made a formidable heel duo. Bauer informs that Vader had been hand-picked by Inoki to reign supreme as a monster heel in Japan, and his presence would be immediately felt in WCW. Bauer also informs that Jim Hellwig (The Ultimate Warrior) was the initial choice to portray the Big Van Vader character prior to Leon White taking over the role.
Austin segues to praising Kurt Angle, saying he picked up the business of professional wrestling quicker than anyone else in the business’ history. Bauer recalls working with Angle in WWE, saying that Angle was incredibly ambitious and never let his push go to his head. Angle treated the business like a shoot, urging the creative team to give him the WWE Title while he guaranteed that he wouldn’t let them down if he was booked to be Champion.
