Remember last week, when rumors started flying that Stone Cold Steve Austin might be a no-show for this year’s WrestleMania in Dallas? The chatter started after Ric Flair’s WOOOOO! Nation podcast with Michael P.S. Hayes, when Flair began pontificating on Hayes’ merits and saying he should be a lock for the WWE Hall of Fame. That’s when he brought Stone Cold’s name into the mix, saying:
If he’s not inducted this year into the Hall of Fame… in Dallas, with all he did for the Freebirds down there — I’m quoting Steve Austin — he will not attend WrestleMania.
Kind of a lofty claim to make, but Flair said it was a direct quote, right? Actually, it turns out that might not be the case. Direct from the Twitter of the Texas Rattlesnake, we have a rebuttal.
The reports of me boycotting #WM32 are once again, pure bullshit. The End.
— Steve Austin (@steveaustinBSR) October 6, 2015
That’s a considerable bullet dodged. It’d be pretty hard to imagine a WrestleMania in the state of Texas with no presence from Stone Cold, so we can breathe a sigh of relief here. Still, one has to wonder what steered Flair the wrong way. I’ve heard him spin some pretty tall tales in the past (go back and watch that Dusty Rhodes roundtable with Jerry Lawler and Arn Anderson), but nothing that could be considered an outright lie. Let’s call it “creative embellishment.”
Lost in the shuffle of these rumors, you have to ask yourself if Michael Hayes is really a guy for whom Austin would fall on his sword. You can consider the legacy of the Freebirds, but there’s a lot more to it than that, especially in a year where tons of people woke up and realized, “Oh hey, that Confederate flag is making things pretty awkward.” Michael Hayes is basically what you’d get if Travis Tritt looked in the NXT Oculus mirror.
