Stone Cold Steve Austin Says Vince McMahon “Always Wanted To Be A Wrestler”
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s rivalry with Vince McMahon over the years was – and still is – one of the most iconic rivalries in professional wrestling history.
Speaking on WWE’s The Bump, The Hall of Famer opened up about the first time he, well, opened up a can of a certain something on McMahon, at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1999 to determine the No. 1 Contender for the WWF Championship, saying McMahon “always wanted to be an in-ring performer” but his dad wouldn’t let him.
“Well, you know, Vince always wanted to be an in-ring performer, but his dad wouldn’t let him, so he just turned into the greatest promoter of all time. This window of opportunity opens up organically so we could start feuding together and that it puts him in the ring. Vince was not the most graceful human being in the world. I say that with all due respect because I love working with him.”
“There’s something about him…what I feel for the business was reciprocated 100 percent from him to me. You have to have that energy that goes back and forth for things to work like they do. People love to hate him, and they loved to love me at the time ’cause I was a baby [face], but that was a match made in heaven.”
The Texas Rattlesnake would also discuss WWE‘s buy-out of WCW in 2001, divulging the uncertainty he felt at that time.
“I didn’t know what it was going to mean for my career or what it was going to mean for the business. The [ratings] war was kicking our ass, but finally, we got the lead. We thought we had the better product, to begin with. Who would have imagined that it would have happened?
“I remember one time I asked Vince, I said, ‘Were we trying to put those guys out of business, or were we just trying to beat them?’ Vince being the visionary that he is, never likes to think he put anybody out of business. Maybe they didn’t have the vision to expand like he did.”
Austin also opened up about his final match with The Rock at WrestleMania XIX.
h/t Wrestling Inc.