For more than a week now, we’ve been trying to figure out what the hell’s going on with WWE Superstar Titus O’Neil. He touched WWE chairman Vince McMahon during Daniel Bryan’s retirement celebration and a weird shoving match occurred, leading to him being fined and suspended for 90 days, later reduced to 60. Word was that Vince wanted to straight-up fire him over it and had to be talked out of it. Some former stars like Batista have said Titus should leave the company based on how he’s been treated.
Who better to weigh in on the subject of “touching Vince McMahon against his will” than Stone Cold Steve Austin?
On a recent episode of The Steve Austin Show, Austin shared his thoughts on the incident and the popular opinion around it, from the severity of the suspension to the Internet’s suggestion that it could be racially motivated. He says the punishment was a little much, but the accusations of racism are “bullsh*t.”
“The whole racist thing really irritated me because any time you hear about anything these days it’s racist, and, man, it’s 2016. I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist, but, I mean, to play that card in this situation was total B.S. from my perspective … racism and that? Absolutely not. It was a reprimand for something that didn’t need to happen at that time. End of story.
“If you’re going to suspend somebody, I think 30 [days]. I think 60 is still a little overreacting. Did something need to happen, a come to Jesus meeting or a stern talking to backstage? Something needed to happen because I do believe it was inappropriate. It was the wrong person, at the wrong time.”
Austin goes on to mention that John Cena’s probably the only person on the roster who could’ve gotten away with grabbing McMahon in a moment like that, and tries to explain the situation from Vince’s POV:
“Vince is 70 right now and that was a serious moment for him. He was totally in character. He cares about Daniel Bryan. He gets jerked pretty forcibly over there to Titus O’Neil and it was completely inappropriate … This may be pro wrestling, sports-entertainment, whatever you want to call it, but that was a serious moment. It’s not a time to be shucking and jiving out there, so lay some type of punishment down. Fine him, this, that, or whatever. I don’t know. Something was appropriate, but when I started hearing the racism things, I was like, ‘I’ve got to roll my eyes and I’ve got to call complete and utter bullsh*t in this one.'”
I guess it’s back to staring at this GIF for another week and trying to figure out what happened.
