Somehow WrestleMania 38 featured the in-ring return of Stone Cold Steve Austin and a ‘match’ involving 76-year-old Vince McMahon.
While Austin’s return on night one where he rolled back the years to defeat Kevin Owens was met with universal praise, McMahon’s appearance 24 hours later was somewhat more divisive.
After Pat McAfee beat Austin Theory (McMahon’s representative), the Executive Chairman decided to take on the announcer himself. McMahon essentially teamed with Theory to defeat McAfee, leading to Steve Austin’s appearance.
Austin dished out Stunners all around, including one disastrous move to McMahon. The Chairman fell into the ropes and was on his way to the canvas long before the Texas Rattlesnake could even execute the move. As McMahon lay prone on the floor, Austin jumped back to his feet with a huge grin.
During an appearance on UpUpDownDown’s WWE 2K23 live stream Austin discussed some of the best Stunner ‘sells’ ever, praising The Rock and Scott Hall. With reference to his attempt on McMahon, Austin said his reaction in the ring came from knowing there was no way to try and defend or cover up the botch.
“I love the reaction that The Rock would do. Razor took a good one, but it was all like an individual thing. Vince, I mean, he wasn’t even in the top 100. That last one at 38, when we botched that one, I just got up and started laughing because when you blow something that bad, everybody knows what’s up, so you might as well let them all in right off the get go.
There’s been a bunch of good ones. There’s been so many. It’s hard to remember, but I just remember Rock really putting the Hollywood in it. He put the oversell into it, but that oversell matched the moment and magnified the story that we were telling. We fed off each other. We were like Frick and Frack out there.”
Steve Austin “Hated” WrestleMania Main Event
During the conversation, Austin also reflected on his match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14. In the match, the WWE Hall of Famer won the World Title for the first time with Mike Tyson counting the pin on HBK. However, Austin said that he “hated” the match, due to the pair not being able to perform to their best given Michaels’ serious back injury.
H/t to WrestlingNews.Co