Right on cue, we’ve got ourselves another Stone Cold podcast to break down. Returning to the live set after a few podcasts at the Broken Skull Ranch, Steve Austin sat down with The Big Show this time around. Big Show arrived about three minutes late, so Austin began the hour with well-wishes to Daniel Bryan and Bret Hart. Once things got rolling, here’s what the World’s Largest Athlete had to say to the Texas Rattlesnake.
– On his Monday Night Raw opponent, Braun Strowman: “[He] has a long way to go, but you know, if he keeps his head right, he’s going to be a player. He gets a little bit better every day, he doesn’t make the same mistake twice.”
– On WWE’s changing in-ring product: “I miss the old tag teams, when a babyface could make a comeback on two heels at the same time. Backdrop, backdrop, clothesline, clothesline, hip toss, hip toss. You got that babyface waiting in the corner all night to get that hot tag, and when he got that hot tag, everybody in the building got their ass whooped… Now, you get a lot of situations where the comebacks aren’t like they used to be because they can’t be executed like that.”
– On his response to fans saying he should retire: “Some of those [fans] that take it seriously really don’t understand what our product’s about, because they don’t understand what I’m doing for our product, what I actually do for the younger talent… Hey, dumbass, I’ve maybe won eight matches in the past two years. How the hell am I killing off all the talent? I’ve had more turns than NASCAR… I am universally able to switch back and forth, I’ve got tenure, I’ve been here a while, but I also help the younger guys as far as in-ring timing, developing their characters, developing their presence in the ring…”
– On being a giant since he was young: “Like most people, you associate weight with health. So, I remember being upset. Five years old, I weighed 100 pounds, I think I was almost five feet tall… Other parents, when I got bigger, were afraid to let me play with their kids. I mean, at 12 [years old], I was six-foot-two, 220 [pounds].”
– On hitting a low point in his life while in college: “I’m cleaning a .357 Ruger for a friend of mine, he hadn’t shot it in a while… I cleaned it, did everything. I spun the cylinder, pulled the hammer back, put it to my head and pulled the trigger. I said, ‘Okay, now I’m dead. What would I have missed out on?’ I had to do it for a mental reset. Everything was so dark, and I’m not a dark person.”
– On how he got into wrestling: “Danny [Bonaduce] had a charity basketball game at a Chicago Wolves CBA halftime with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Danny Bonaduce and his secret partner. Well, Danny knew that I’d played ball at Wichita State and knew that I was trying to get into the business, because back then there weren’t schools and developmental centers. You had to know somebody. Somebody had to put in a good word for you, and then they’d get you in the door. That’s how I got started, I met Hogan in Chicago.”
– On one of his favorite wrestlers: “Arn Anderson, to me, is the greatest heel of all-time. I love Double A. He cut promos, [he was an] in-ring technician like nobody’s business, and I’m happy to say that now he’s one of my dearest friends and mentors.”
– On the joke that the WCW locker room pulled on him: “When I first got that [WCW heavyweight] title from Hogan, he says, ‘Brother, now you gotta let everyone know there’s a new champion. Tomorrow when you go through the airport, you gotta wear the title through the airport.’ I wore it so proud. And what made it worse was guys like the Steiners and all those sons of bitches… Sting comes over, he had the blond crew cut and the razor shades back then, he was cool. He comes over and he goes, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m wearing the championship. Hulk told me to wear the championship so everyone knows there’s a new champion.’ He says, ‘Put the belt away, you look like a damn idiot.'”
– On the state of WCW during the Monday Night Wars: “WCW wasn’t chaos, but there really wasn’t anyone in charge. Hogan had intellectual control over his contract, [Scott] Hall and [Kevin] Nash wanted the same thing… So, the attitude got very sour. Morale got terrible.”
– On his transition to the WWE locker room: “Hunter was a good friend of mine, but I had too much heat for him to even say hi to… [Undertaker] was cool to me. Taker took me under his wing, he was cool, and also he was very hard on me and very direct… He used to wait for me in the curtain when I came back from my matches.”
– On the way he’s been booked thus far: “Horrible. Absolutely horrendous. I think the problem is that I’m a victim of my own success… I’ve always been a team player. I’ve always looked at it like, ‘Vince McMahon gives me a whole lot of money and a hell of a contract, and if Vince McMahon asks me to go out, put on a diaper, and dance for Baby New Year for some weird commercial, I’ll do it.'”
