All language subtitles for Biography WWE Legends S01 E01 (Biography.Wwe.Legends.S01e01.720P.Web.H264-Dirt.m4v) (ENGLISH)

Who is Steve Austin the man and who
is Stone Cold Steve Austin the performer?

The difference between Stone Cold Steve
Austin the man and Stone Cold Steve Austin

the performer is basically Stone
Cold Steve Austin is exactly that.

I don't even know what
the difference is really.

Steve Austin is one of the
biggest superstars in the history

of the wrestling business
because of his passion for it.

He had this meteoric rise that burnt hot
and fast and changed an entire industry.

Talk about your Psalms,
talk about John 316.

Austin 316 says I
just whipped your ass.

The separation between
Stone Cold and Steve Austin

is only a matter of the
surrounding that I'm in.

The character was a real person.

The look in his
eyes told a real story.

And you know why?

Because it was a real story.

He went from being a guy from Texas
to a pro wrestler to a pop culture icon.

He was the defining
character of a generation.

The disrupter of the status quo.

The pivotal player in the complete
reimagination of the industry.

I've been retired for so
long, I don't miss it anymore.

I don't crave it.

You can never replace it.

I'm trying to say that you can.

But I wouldn't say there's anything about
the life I used to live on the road that

makes me yearn to go back
in time and relive those days.

But I do what I want, when I
want, right here in this damn ring.

And can't nobody stop me.

The whole world knows my
name is Stone Cold Steve Austin.

If I'm going straight to hell,
you're damn sure coming with me.

Stone Cold Steve Austin.

His reign on top
was second to none.

Steve Austin changed the
way the game was played.

There will never ever
be anyone like him.

He's the man responsible for making
WWE more than we thought it could ever be.

People gravitated a lot to the
energy that I brought to the business.

Steve didn't have a long career being
on top, but he had that one little peak.

It was like, well, no one
will come close to that.

Stone Cold is the showbiz guy.

Steve Austin is the regular guy.

They just happen to be
rolled up in the same package.

I was born in Austin, Texas,
but we didn't stay there long.

I grew up in a little
town called Edna.

I'm proud to be from Texas.

You know, born, bred, raised.

You know, it's tough.

It's cowboy country
and it's rugged.

I think the reputation of
Texas kind of precedes

you and the fact that
you're from that state.

You know, it's not a one stop light
town, but we just have a few stop lights.

And it's a town where
everybody knows everybody.

We had a huge house,
our yellow house.

It was on half of an acre.

It was great growing
up in a big family.

Scott's the oldest, then Steve,
then Kevin, Jeff, and then me.

As a kid, Steve was very shy.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was shy.

I was just shy enough that when we called
down to Dairy Queen to order, you know,

three tacos or whatever,
you know, hell, I put my sister

on the phone, Jenny, could
you order my food for me?

So he's seven years old with me,
and he would literally call me into the

kitchen, and he'd hand me the phone to
Dairy Queen and have me read off his order.

I broke out of shyness when
I found football in junior high.

I used athletics to
help me find confidence.

I noticed him when
he was in junior high.

I was a high school coach.

He was a physical
specimen, I guess you'd say.

When he started seventh grade football,
as long as I can remember, that's all he

wanted to do was work out,
eat right, and just build his body.

We're eating Little Debbie's
and Captain Crunch cereal.

And he's over there
with the blender with

his protein stuff and
putting raw eggs in it.

And I'm thinking, what?

Who does this, you know?

He does.

I was a running back,
and I wasn't very fast.

I weighed about 205 pounds, and
my line averaged about 165 pounds.

So I didn't have a
whole lot of blocking.

And I ran north and
south because I wasn't fast

enough to run east and
west, and I ran over people.

Straight A student,
National Honor Society.

Steve never drank beer or raised
hell during high school like I did.

So every weekend, all my
buddies would come over.

We're sitting on the back patio drinking
beer, raising hell, having a good time.

And Steve would open
up his bedroom window.

Y'all shut the hell up.

I'm trying to sleep.

He was popular, but he just had such
bigger dreams and goals for himself.

He used to actually practice
signing autographs back in the day.

We'd be in the kitchen.

He'd be writing his name different ways,
trying to check out which would fit best.

He'd ask my opinion.

What the... what are
you talking about, man?

At first, you know, I
wanted to be a rock star.

But I can't sing, play any musical
instruments, so that's out the door.

Channel 39 presents
Houston Wrestling.

One day, my mom was in her
chair reading a Redbook magazine.

And I was flipping channels,
and I came across Pro Wrestling.

It was Houston Wrestling.

For some reason, the
lighting, the smoke-filled

arena, the rope
banister around the ring...

One of the guys was
just bleeding like a stuck

pig in a ring, and it
just resonated with me.

I was like, holy cow.

I fell in love with it that day.

Growing up, we only
got three channels here.

And Houston Wrestling
was on every Sunday.

And Steve always watched it.

If I wanted to watch
anything else, he said, man,

you can have the TV
after wrestling's over with.

And apparently, yeah, he
told, I guess, friends and my

brothers that he was going
to be a wrestler one day.

He said those words.

Well, I'll be talking.

You know, coming from a small
town, you don't really get noticed.

You have to put in
a whole lot of work.

And you got to kind of
get yourself out there.

And he was able to do it.

Coming out of high school, I went
to Wharton County Junior College.

And they offered me a full ride
to North Texas State University.

And football at that
level was more serious.

This is the young
man we talked about.

That was real good play.

Yes.

Real good play by Steve.

He played very well.

Gotten better every game.

I really didn't care.

I didn't enjoy the
process anymore.

As far as the education
process goes, I had had

an absolute gutful of
doing research papers.

Algebra 2 and calculus
were kicking my ass.

It just wasn't my cup of tea.

I was through with college
and I wanted to drop out.

So I did.

But we had a connection
from the athletic

department at North Texas
to Watkins Motor Lines.

With 17 hours to go, I just
said, man, I'm out of here.

Let me go work on a freight
dock and make that $400 a week.

I love driving a forklift.

I could pull your tooth.

I could pull your
tooth with a forklift.

But Watkins Motor Lines, we were 30
miles from the sport tournament in Dallas.

So me and my buddies
would ride down there.

We'd drink beer and throw stuff
at the wrestlers and raise hell.

Man, the sport tournament was
the greatest building in the world.

The atmosphere personified.

And I'll never forget, man, we were
out there and me and my buddy Rob,

he's giving me the elbow.

He goes, man,
you're as big as him.

He goes, you gotta get in this.

Man, you ought to be a wrestler.

I said, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

And so I'd wanted
to for a long time.

And I'd be damned if I didn't
go home a couple days later.

And I was changing channels.

And there was that commercial that Chris
Adams put on for his wrestling academy.

And I said, that's it.

That's my way in.

Hello, everybody.

This is Gentleman Chris
Adams here bringing you

exciting news about our
May 3-day pro wrestling camp.

You'll spend three full days
working out in the same ring that

you see on your TV here at
the world-famous sport at home.

We'll be right back.

The one thing that surprised me when
I showed up that first day, I just thought

there was going to be a bunch of monsters
in there that looked like me, the killers

that wanted to get in the
business of pro wrestling.

But they were just regular
people off the street.

I don't know if I met Steve
as much as I saw Steve.

I was injured during a match.

So I went up in what's
known as the crow's nest,

where family and friends
could watch the matches.

And that happened to be the first lesson
that Gentleman Chris Adams taught me.

He was giving for his
new wrestling school.

And me and a couple of guys were laughing
about how bad all of the trainees were.

All of them except this
one guy with long blonde

hair and definite, you
know, gift of athleticism.

And it was clear that he had it.

Whatever it is, he
had it right away.

By the time he started
wrestling, it was mid to late 1989.

Austin started
wrestling for the USWF.

Which was the United
States Wrestling Association.

So he was wrestling in
Memphis and in Texas and

all points in between that
the USWA was running.

I rolled into Nashville and
I needed a place to live.

I didn't know where to go.

And they said, hey man, try the
Congress Inn out on Dickerson Pike.

So I rolled in there
and checked in.

And man, I didn't have no money.

So every week or whenever I had
enough money, I would pay my rent.

Times were really, really lean.

And I didn't have a hot plate.

I didn't have a microwave.

And I remember I went
to the grocery store.

I bought some tuna fish cans.

I bought some potatoes.

And for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner, I'd eat tuna fish and potato.

And after a few days,
I ran out of tuna fish.

So for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
I'd peel a raw potato and eat that.

A lot of guys ended
up living with dancers.

And a lot of guys knew
where all the buffets were.

Any kind of all-you-can-eat
thing, they knew where they were.

You had to figure out a
way to survive back then.

There was a time period there where
I actually, I spent nights in my car.

I think I'd made $11,000 in a year
and put 10,000 miles on my car.

You were barely getting by.

And so you're paying your dues,
traveling 400 miles to make $10.

I'm making $15 to $20 a night,
making 400-mile round trips.

You can't afford to eat.

I remember calling my mom where she
called me and asked me how I was doing.

And I said, Mom, is there
any way for my birthday

this year you could
just send me 40 bucks?

And it's the only time I ever
asked my parents for money.

And sure enough, a couple of days
later, my mom sent me two $20 bills.

And it meant the world to me because I
could afford to get something to eat again.

That's part of paying your dues.

And I just figured, you
know, starving or doing

whatever it takes because
I didn't have a plan B.

I wanted to be a pro wrestler.

And so if this is what it takes to
be one, this is what I'm going to do.

I had a lot of friends.

I showed up to my
first match in Memphis.

And Dutch Mantell
was the booker.

I go introduce myself
to Dutch Mantell.

I said, hey, man,
I'm Steve Williams.

I'm here to wrestle.

He goes, your name
is Steve Williams?

He goes, you can't be that here.

He goes, there's already
a Dr. Death Steve Williams.

There'd be
confusion on the card.

And he goes, you got 15 minutes.

Come up with a name.

And he walks away.

And I'm just two months in the business,
new territory, don't know anybody,

and don't know what the F to do.

Match is about to start.

And, you know, I'm making
a life-changing decision.

And he goes, what
did you come up with?

I said, I ain't got nothing.

He goes, you're Steve Austin.

And I started calling myself
Stunning Steve Austin.

And I had a red robe
with sequins on it.

All I did was wrestle.

You know, go to the
gym in the morning, get in

the car, go around
somewhere and drive back.

That was life.

I was a sponge.

And I was absorbing all this information
from these great minds who would teach me

information that they got
from generations before them.

I've been very impressed
by Steve Austin.

I'm looking at how far he's
come in such a short time.

He's showing that he has the
potential to go a long, long way.

He will miss.

If he gets with the right kind of people,
he'll just sit back, listen, and learn.

You watch the matches
and you listen to the crowd.

You put the two together and watch what
they're doing and listen to the soundtrack.

Oh, that works.

That doesn't work.

Oh, yeah!

One, two, three!

A place like USWA at that point, it
gave those wrestlers an opportunity

where even if they were only making 10,
20, 30 bucks a night, the payoff was maybe

someone from the WWE or World Championship
Wrestling at the time might see me and

they'll bring me up and
kind of they'll be my guardian

angel and suddenly I'll be
making way more money.

Well, I think stunning
Steve Austin definitely

has a fantastic future
ahead of him in this sport.

At that time, I was on
the booking committee

at WCW, which was World
Championship Wrestling.

We were all challenged and compelled to
try to find some new faces, some new young

athletic talents that we
could build that had potential.

Gosh, he checked
all those boxes.

Back in the day, the standard deal for
WCW, and this is crazy, you made 75 grand,

you know, guaranteed.

You go from getting anywhere from 20 to
60 or 100 bucks a night to 75,000 a year.

It's like the motherlode.

You know, again,
this is not 92, 93.

That's a lot of money, especially
coming from where I came from.

WCW is a little different level.

Bigger television opportunities,
bigger chance for national exposure.

Welcome back to World Championship
Wrestling, and I'm Missy Hyatt.

And stunning Steve Austin
and vivacious Veronica.

WCW, I think it's my first appearance in
a ring, and Missy Hyatt's gonna interview

me, and I'm walking down the aisle,
and I'm just, I'm in another world, right?

And I hear the announcer over the crowd
going, and from Hollywood, California.

So I'm like, man, who the
is that guy talking about?

I'm walking to the ring,
stunning Steve Austin.

I'm like, when did my Texas ass with this
accent, you know, become from Hollywood,

California?

I would just like to take this
time to welcome you to the ring.

Welcome you to World
Championship Wrestling.

So I get out there and climb in the ring,
and I'm doing this interview with Missy

Hyatt, and of course I
got the biggest booger

you could have
hanging out of your nose.

I was like, really?

It wasn't a great
first appearance.

Stunning Steve Austin!

Steve always had
great natural intensity.

It wasn't prefabricated.

It wasn't manufactured.

It was real.

And you can see that
he could tap into his...

athletic background
to bring a reality in the

fight that very few other
people could match.

Oh, did you see that?

He had a solid run
throughout his time in WCW.

At one point he was part of a
tag team, the Hollywood Blondes.

They were this young, vibrant,
arrogant tag team spitting in the wind

against the veterans of
that company at the time.

But he was always one of the
secondary performers in the company.

I don't think anyone...

in WCW ever visualized Steve
Austin as being the top guy.

I was keenly aware that there was that
upper level, and I wasn't a part of it.

Unless something happened, you
could not break into that next tier.

Aesthetically, I didn't
have the right look.

I didn't have the right
gimmick or persona.

They didn't think
I was marketable.

Get out of my face!

From the land of the rising sun.

He was over in Japan on a three-week
tour, and the third night of that tour,

I jumped off the top rope
to splash a guy, and he

moved, and I tore my
right tricep off my elbow.

And so I wrestled for two and
a half weeks and tore my tricep.

You know, and as soon as I get back to
the United States, my first major surgery.

And I remember getting a call from Eric
Mischoff, who was running WCW at the time,

and he goes, Steve, I'm
just, you know, letting you

know that, you know,
you're getting back in the ring.

I'm fired.

And so that's how it went down.

Got a FedEx the next
day, and I was out of a job.

I'm sitting there
trying to heal up now.

Buddy's gonna stop coming in.

I got bills to pay and
my family to feed.

I'm like, man, what
am I gonna do?

In September 1995, I
was the owner of ECW and

was in charge of all
the creative direction.

Someone from WCW buzzed
me that Steve was being let go.

So I called Steve and I said,
hey, I heard you got fired.

Right off the bat,
the phone rings.

It's Paulie.

Paul calls me.

He goes, kid, why don't you
come over and start working for me?

I said, Paul, I
said, I can't work.

I said, I got a torn tricep.

Oh, hell, kid, I'm hurt.

I can't do anything.

Can you talk?

Oh, hell, kid, I can
talk all day long.

Come on up and talk.

And I said, man, what do
you want me to talk about?

He goes, he goes, just
talk about how you feel.

If you're pissed
off, come and vent.

Let's talk about that.

I wanted that authentic
outrage on my television show.

Sure enough, I am
flying up to Philly.

We go to that goddang ECW
arena, which is a complete ho.

ECW was, well, it was
purgatory, basically.

Probably closer to
hell than purgatory.

ECW is Extreme Championship Wrestling,
and I dare say they earned the Extreme.

Extreme, uh, moniker.

At ECW, we were obsessed with delivering
performances that were going to redefine

the industry, with doing things
that had never been done before.

They were tables and barbed wire and blood
and guts and people flying into the crowd.

We took in misfits.

I mean, if there was an island
for misfit wrestlers, it was ECW.

Oh, my God!

I'm the new guy
in the territory.

What's my mission?

What's my goal?

Who am I?

What am I?

You know, you're kind of lost.

I'll never forget that night
when I cut this promo.

It was about seven or
eight minutes long, and I

just started talking, and
it was a one-take promo.

And everything I
said was how I felt.

You know, a couple of weeks ago,
when Eric Bischoff told his secretary to

tell her secretary to leave a message on
my answering machine for me to call Eric

Bischoff, and then I called Eric Bischoff,
and he proceeded to fire me over the phone.

We're gonna put the U.S.

title on you, and then we're gonna take
you here, and then you're the number-one

contender, so then you
get this world title shot.

Well, all of that
never happened.

And when I wrapped up
that promo and they shut off

that light, everybody in
that room started clapping.

Standing ovation,
and rightfully so.

He was able to express
himself in a way that you just

could not do or that we were
not allowed to do in WCW.

Man, after being held down or kind of
restrained in WCW or no one believed in

me, I knew that I had to
take chances on myself.

You could tell that he was
energized and that he had

an axe to grind, and he
was grinding it really well.

And a lot of people
say that's kind of...

maybe that was the genesis of
what Stone Cold would come from.

Steve O'Meady is gonna
run wild on the ECW, brother.

I'm saying my first...

I'm not gonna do this
anywhere, not even in ECW.

Well, Jim Ross was always
an admirer of Steve's talent.

So I knew ECW was
always vulnerable.

That Jim Ross would
recruit Steve into WWE.

Once Steve did that interview
on ECW, Jim Ross came after him.

And rightfully so.

How could he not?

I didn't realize how fast
it was gonna happen.

WWE was subsidizing
ECW when Steve was there.

So we had our eye on
him for quite some time.

At least I did.

I just had to wait for the right place
at the right time to get him to WWE.

So I made the phone rings,
and it's a maroon phone.

And I pick it up.

Steve.

I said, man.

Hey Vince, how you doing?

Hey.

Wanna bring you
in as the ringmaster.

Master of the ring.

From a creative standpoint,
the character of the ringmaster

was the best in-ring
performer and could do it all.

And to me, that
was Steve Austin.

And I'm sitting there listening to Vince
make this pitch, and I'm like, ringmaster?

First of all, it
sounds like shit.

But more importantly than that, I need
more money than I'm making from ECW.

And I ain't got
no other options.

So I said, sounds good.

Let's do it.

When I joined WWE, I
know the territory was down.

You know, things weren't great.

They were getting by.

But, you know, we'd go
out and, I don't know, it

seemed like a house
would be like a quarter full.

But I was willing to be a part of
the system just because it's so new.

It's so big.

And I'm so far low down, you
know, that, you know, I ain't

got no reason to act like
a big shot because I ain't.

Here I am as a ringmaster, a
new gimmick, a bad gimmick.

And, you know, you're, you
don't know who and what you are.

He's all business, man.

He's not in there trying to
impress anybody with how good

he looks or, like, how
pretty his hair is or anything.

He just wants to beat up
people and win matches.

This character's a
stretch because I don't

know what it is or
what it's supposed to be.

As ringmaster, I didn't know who and what
I was or how I'm supposed to do things.

So it was very confusing.

After a while, I just
stopped wearing the green

trucks because they weren't
paying attention to me.

So I'm thinking, I don't think
they really got plans for me.

Vince looked at Steve,
saw an average guy, says,

I don't know what to do
with him and that accent.

It's just...

I can't relate to him.

There's nothing about
him I can relate to.

All my initial impressions of
him was, he's wasting my time.

There was no way to go with
the ringmaster to make it marquee.

I don't give a damn who he is.

Who was doing it?

There's nothing there.

And I said, man, I said, this
gimmick ain't worth a shit.

And after six months
or so, you know, Vince

was kind of like, I
don't care what he does.

If he's not happy and he wants to
come up with another name, let him.

I was living in a log cabin on 10 acres
right outside of Georgia in Douglasville.

And I was over there in my log
cabin and I was drinking some beer.

And that's when they had that special on
HBO about Richard Kuklinski, the Iceman.

Well, Richard Kuklinski was a
hit man, you know, for the mob.

He's cold-blooded.

He's remorseless.

I was glued to the set.

When you're sitting there watching
and you got a couple of beers flowing,

it's like, shh, man, this
could be something.

And I pitched that and, you know, that
was when all the ideas started flowing.

That's a tricky situation where
you're fairly new in the company.

Mr. McMahon has agreed
to give you a character

change and you were
given a list from creative.

The fact that I can rattle off more of
Stone Cold's names than the terrible names

that I was given speaks
to just how bad they were.

I'd just gotten those three pages
of names like Fang McFrost.

Snowman.

Otto Von Ruthless.

Mr. Freeze.

Ice Dagger.

Ice Dagger.

Cool Luke.

Fang McFrost.

Cool Cat.

Chilly McFreeze.

Chilly McFreeze.

I mean, some of the worst
names you could ever imagine.

Even given...

Even everything else in the Austin
package, if he's Fang McFrost or Chilly

McFreeze, we're not having
this interview right now.

And my wife at the time
made me a cup of hot tea.

And she goes, drink your
tea before it gets Stone Cold.

And she looks at me, she
goes, that's your name?

Stone Cold Steve Austin?

You know, I'm not a
rocket scientist, but when

she said that name, I
knew that was the one.

I said, okay, this
is a good name.

And I wanted it to be from
Victoria, Texas, because, you

know, I just thought it had a
good ring to it, a good sound.

But, okay, now, who is this guy?

Who and what is Stone
Cold Steve Austin?

I got me some black boots made.

I always thought black was badass,
and, you know, menacing from Darth Vader,

Oakland Raiders-type
stuff, and it fit my persona.

I remember one time, we were in
Pittsburgh, and we were about to work

Mellon Arena, and there I was with that
buzz haircut, and, you know, I looked in

the mirror, and I said,
man, what are you doing?

So I buzzed the doll off with a razor,
and then that's when I started messing

with the mustache and finally
turned into a goatee, so I started with...

Once I got that goatee down, you
know, that's when things started getting a

little bit more menacing, and it
picked up the visual that I needed.

I believed in the character because
the character was a real person.

Steve totally embraced the
presentation of Stone Cold Steve Austin.

He loved it.

He owned it.

He created it.

He was bold enough to bet on himself
and push and push and push until a big man

almost threw his hands up and
said, okay, okay, let's go, let's try it.

He just needs a chance.

Give him a reason to
be a main event guy.

1995 to 1996, Stone Cold starting to find
himself as a character, and then they had

the 1996 King of the Ring tournament,
which would take place in June.

The King of the Ring is
a one-night pay-per-view.

Wrestlers all go through this
tournament, and the winner

is pretty much earmarked
to be the next great star.

That's the message
from the company.

We're going to try and
push them and promote

them and move them
up behind the scenes.

It had already been planned.

Triple H was going
to win King of the Ring.

But before that, Triple
H ended up punished for

this role with something
called the curtain call.

We did a big no-no in the
wrestling business where

all of us came together in
Madison Square Garden.

Myself, Triple H, Kevin
Nash, and Scott Hall.

What?

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

We were expressing a real friendship out
there that had really nothing to do with

whatever was going on in the WWE at
the time or from a storyline standpoint.

We were pulling the
curtain back more so than

anyone wanted the
curtain being pulled back.

It's very frowned upon, and
Triple H got in a lot of trouble.

Did you know you were on the
trajectory to win King of the Ring?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It was already...

Vince had sat me down,
talked to me about it.

Here's where I want
to go, King of the Ring.

And for me, that was
the next level, right?

And, you know,
that all went away.

So in the pecking order, as
you looked at it, you looked

at who needed that boost and
who needed maybe just a nudge.

Steve was the guy.

I'm walking in the building,
dragging my suitcase behind me.

I hear this voice.

It's Vince.

He goes, Steve, I just
want to let you know,

in two weeks, you win
the King of the Ring.

I was pretty happy.

Because, you know, when
you win the King of the

Ring, you're going to
get a big shove after that.

And before, there were
no future plans for me.

I go to Milwaukee, the
Mecca Arena, and I go

out there and I'm
working with Mark Merrow.

And we do this thing, we're having a
match, and he kicks me in my mouth.

And we finish the match.

I beat him.

My mouth is busted open pretty bad, so they
take me in an ambulance to the hospital.

And so I get stitched up
14 stitches or whatever

in my upper lip, and
they bring me back.

Because I'm going to wrestle Jake the
Snake Roberts in the finals, and I'm going

to beat Jake and become
the King of the Ring.

When I come back, my mouth is stitched up,
and as soon as I get out of the ambulance,

there's Michael Hayes.

We're in the back of the
Mecca Arena, and he came out.

He was going to the
ring to go take on Jake.

I mean, literally
going to the ring.

And I said, Jake
just cut a promo.

He says, what did he say?

And I said, you know,
he just uses some Bible

quotes and, you know,
that he was going to win.

My soul was purchased by the blood of the
Lamb, so how could I lose if I just go out

there and know the power above
is reaching down and lifting me up?

And when he told me that, I immediately
thought of the football days back in the

day when they're kicking
the field goals a point after.

They always had John 316
signs behind the field goals.

So anyway, we go out there, and we have
the match, myself and Jake, and because my

lip was busted up, we
had a real short match.

After the match, I go over
there to do the interview

with Michael Hayes, who
had smartened me up.

You thump your Bible, and you say your
prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere.

Talk about your Psalms.

Talk about John 316.

Austin 316 says, I
just whipped your ass.

Austin 316 says, I
just whipped your ass.

Austin 316 says, I
just whipped your ass.

Said, I just whipped your ass.

I just whipped your ass.

And thus, a franchise was born.

There was a vibe of, like, a rocket
ship igniting its engine to take off.

That was the moment where
the character really became a star.

That's the epicenter of the
explosion that eventually happens.

I remember thinking
halfway through this

promo, like, I'm watching
this guy get made.

And part of me was like,
holy, that should have been me.

But also, holy, I wouldn't
have cut that promo.

And I think the stitches
in his lip and coming

back only added to the
aura of that interview.

I just got back from hospital.

So I just kind of put
that together in my head.

And I didn't know what kind of
holy moment that was, but it was.

And then on the back side of
it, I knew I needed to wrap it up.

I needed to put a button on it.

And that's the bottom
line for Kostanko Setso.

And that's the bottom line, because
Kostanko Setso was on the spot.

I went to bat twice, and
I hit two grand slams.

Out of any event, I was
never supposed to win.

Next night, we showed up.

All of a sudden, there's
the Austin 316 signs,

and we realized there
might be something here.

Next night on Raw, you saw all these
Austin 316 signs all over the building.

I remember thinking to myself at that
time, man, everything happens for a

reason, because this guy
is going to be massive now.

One day, I'm talking
to our merch guy.

I'm sitting in the arena.

He goes, Steven, Office finally
wants to come up with a T-shirt for you.

You got any ideas?

I said, you're
goddamn right I do.

I said, put Austin 316 on the front, put a
skull in the back, and carve in Stone Cold.

Okay, Steven.

And sure enough, we came up with that
shirt, and it sold like a son of a bitch.

From that point on, when he got the chance
to speak, there was an intensity there

that you couldn't help but
want to watch that segment.

The way he walked, the
way he stalked the crowd,

the way he looked at
people, he had that icy glare.

Because he was in the zone at that
level, you couldn't help but be like,

got to see what
he's going to do.

Why do you keep asking
me stupid questions?

No second thought I'll
whip your asses right now.

Shut up.

Stone Cold never gave
a rat's ass about anybody.

I don't know what pressure is, fat
boy, but I got a big bunch of bananas,

and I can tell you where to
stick each and every one of them.

You ain't worth the
sweat off of my... Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

My mom used to tell me, Steven, if you
were on TV, I wouldn't let you watch you.

You're a piece of garbage.

Oh, no.

See, take your
camera and stick it, son.

I ain't leaving yet, and
you can stop counting

me down, because I
done told you once, son.

We got a damn album.

Hey, hey, wait a minute.

There's a production assistant.

He is now the guy in
the eyes of the audience.

Like, he can do no wrong.

They want to be
part of that chaos.

They want to be
part of that energy.

They want to go and experience
Stone Cold Steve Austin, the act, live.

You really start feeling that
momentum, because you're finally

getting the desired response
that you want from these people.

So now that I'm getting that
feedback, I can feed it to you.

Throughout that period of time, I'm
trying my hardest to entertain you or

grab your heartstrings to make
you feel what I'm feeling, channel that.

I'm doing my damnedest
to try to affect you, and I

guess I was effective at
making people feel emotions.

There's a perception that
Steve just came out of nowhere.

That's a misconception
on a lot of people's parts.

Stone Cold lived within, and
it took ten years to come out.

If you look at that time period,
the WWE was at its lowest point.

The only way they could
have gone any lower is going

out of business or for
the company to fall apart.

He dragged them into success.

Austin's ascension is tied
intricately to the ascension of WWE.

We're coming back to life.

The flame isn't dead.

By 1997, Stone Cold's
the hottest he's ever been.

The company's building him as one
of the biggest stars in their company.

He's driving revenue.

He's selling merchandise.

He's making money.

But up next, ladies and gentlemen, the
Intercontinental Championship matchup.

It's Owen Hart in a title defense
against Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Me and Owen, we're
gonna have a hell of a match.

And we had had this plan where he'd end
up hitting me with a tombstone piledriver.

And I said, you go down
to your knees, right?

Because I'm
looking for clearance.

He goes, no, I go to my ass.

I said, but it seemed like you
got to go down to your knees.

He goes, no.

And when Owen said, this is how I do
it, I trusted him because he's Owen Hart.

And so anyway, we get out
there and things go like they did.

And man, he goes to
his ass and my head is

sticking out about six
inches below his ass.

And boy, I got
spiked on the mat.

And it was not good.

Let's see what Austin
can do with Eamon.

No.

How about that?

A good read.

Let's go.

Tombstone piledriver.

Shades of the Undertaker.

Yeah, it was gnarly.

You could tell immediately that Steve
was, you know, that he was injured.

It sounded like
someone hit a big gong.

And it was my skull, you know, striking
that damn ring dead center in the middle.

And then I didn't feel anything because
I'm laying there and I'm paralyzed.

And I was like, man, on one hand, I
could have freaked out and got scared.

But instead, I remained calm.

I was like, don't touch me.

I can't move.

And so he starts buying time because
I think I'm never going to move again.

As soon as he got
injured, I called his wife up.

I said, hey, did
you really get hurt?

Or was this a show?

He said, no, he really got hurt.

It was 1997 to this day.

I cry about it every
time I hear about it.

I'm thinking, I got to
get out of this match.

I got to get out of this
match so we can go back.

And Earl Hebner's a
referee in that match.

And I told Earl, I said,
tell him roll up for the win.

I thought I could start
moving my arms and legs.

And when I tried to, if
you go back and watch

that, it's like my knees
are creaking together.

I get in a crawl position.

And I can't crawl like this
because my hands don't work.

So I had to crawl
using my forearms.

And I give him the
initial thing, and he

goes with me, and
he doesn't try to fight it.

It's the worst roll up in
the history of the business.

He's driving.

No, kick it out!

And man, I am gone.

I've been, you know, a
quadriplegic for 60 seconds.

And my world has been
turned upside down.

The referees come to the ring,
and they, three of them help me up.

I got my arms around their shoulders,
and I pull them off because I want to get

up, and I want to address
that crowd and hold up that belt.

And the only reason
I held up that belt was

to signal the crowd
that, hey, man, I'm cool.

And man, when you look at that, my
eyes are open, but I'm worlds away.

The referees help me to the back,
and as I'm walking, this leg is dragging

behind me for quite a bit
because of my nerve damage.

I watched Steve stand up
on legs that he couldn't feel.

I don't know how in the hell,
Steve, still that he was able to get up.

That's a will that supersedes
what the body can do.

Everybody thought
I broke my neck.

I didn't break my neck.

I bruised my spinal cord.

I'm a pretty tough guy.

On that night, I was
1% tough and 99% lucky.

You know, and that's why I get a little
bit emotional about it because if anything

would have went any differently,
I'd have been in a wheelchair.

I wouldn't be sitting
here talking to you.

Nothing that ever happened
after that would have happened.

Everything was on the line.

Where are the ambulance people?

Where are the ambulance people?

Get the ambulance.

You want to just
call 911 or what?

Get the medics.

No, they're over there.

I'd put on a pair of shorts
and I was sitting up there

against the wall and I was
like... Well, I was shaking.

I kind of started crying a little
bit because it scared me so bad.

I think an injury of that magnitude
makes us question our own mortality.

And that's not something
we're often faced with.

And I remember I passed
the test in the hospital,

but the doctor said,
you know, you're pretty...

Initially, Dr. Torg said, man,
you're not getting back in the ring.

And it's easy for a doctor
to sit there and tell me

maybe you ought to think
about doing something else.

But this is what Steve
Austin has done for a living.

I've done it for eight years.

Austin 316 started a
year and a half ago and

I ain't ready to give
that up for nobody.

And no one's gonna
run me out of wrestling.

And there ain't a doctor in the
world that can make me quit.

It took me long
enough to get to the top.

And you get to the top and
it's like, man, you're riding

a lightning bolt and you're
going 100 miles an hour.

Then all of a sudden, man, out of
nowhere, you come to a screeching halt.

Here was this opportunity
he worked so hard for.

And like that, it
could all be over.

After that bad injury, my
anterior delts were on fire.

For like a couple of weeks.

I mean, like someone
put Icy Hot on them.

It was the weirdest thing.

And I didn't think it
was ever gonna stop.

And it turned into an itch.

And then finally, it went away.

When I took that piledriver back in the
day, when those reps were carrying me out,

you can watch my left leg
kind of dragging behind me.

So like, if I get cold, you
know, that leg will kind of...

It just doesn't
respond the same.

And, you know, just...

When you bruise your spinal
cord and that stuff happens, it just...

It does a reverse.

So I've got some atrophy
and some stuff like that.

Coming out of the pro
wrestling does this...

I ask the guys that are five years older
than me and ten years older than me,

hey, man, how you feeling?

So I kind of know what's next.

You know, what
they're going through.

Because I know they've been
through the same that I have.

I've never had any neck pain.

You know, everybody
always thinks, hey, man,

Steve got dropped on his
head and he got a fusion.

His neck's all jacked up.

Man, I feel good.

You know, every now and then if I'm
sitting around too long, I'll get a little

gimped up, just got
to stretch it a little bit.

But I really can't
complain about anything.

Through all the surgeries and
just the wear and tear of the

road, for what it's worth,
through all the stuff, I feel good.

To WWE's credit, Steve's
credit, they managed

to take that injury and
he became even bigger.

It has been said that anything can happen
here in the World Wrestling Federation,

but now more than ever, truer
words have never been spoken.

This is a conscious effort on our part to
open the creative envelope, so to speak,

in order to entertain you in a
more contemporary manner.

For me, the start of the Attitude Era was
the day in late 1997 when Mr. McMahon

addressed the roster, admitted that the
old days were gone and that if we were

going to succeed, we
would have to put our

own personal emphasis
into these characters.

The Attitude Era is
a point in time in pro

wrestling history where
WWE got a lot edgier.

It becomes violent.

It becomes chaotic.

They pushed
sexuality with women.

They pushed storylines that
were blatantly over the top.

Everybody felt this interesting shift
that was happening in wrestling, and that

seismic shift now was away from
the cartoon era, the superhero era,

if you will, in pro wrestling, into
an edgier, reality-based program.

The Attitude Era was
the era of reality, the

era of pushing the
limits as far as we could.

It's the golden era.

The Attitude Era, a lot of it
was blending reality and fiction.

It was more real
and more versions of

ourselves just with the
volume turned way up.

Suck it!

I would imagine doing the suck it probably
caused more suspensions and detentions in

school than any other thing in
the history of school in America.

We saw the very best in
what people had to offer.

It's awesome!

And Steve happened to have been the best
of all of us at bringing that to the plate.

He was in a
different stratosphere.

It was the era of holy shit.

Steve's Glass was the
soundtrack to holy shit.

No matter what was
happening, holy shit, right?

Like that was the moment.

I'm getting goosebumps
right now talking about it.

Whether it's an arena of 2,000 or 20,000
or 100,000, they know when that glass

breaks, there's a sumbitch coming
out there to deal out a can of world bass.

When that glass broke, here he came
with his whole, you know, head bouncing,

you know, and, you know,
he's saying whatever he's

saying under his breath,
and you just see that attitude.

I remember the first
time I heard that glass

break and I saw him
walk down to the ring.

It was the first time that I ever
got goosebumps in my entire life.

20,000, 40,000, 60,000 people
were going absolutely insane.

I said, I want to
be like that guy.

In that moment, I said, I
need to be a pro wrestler.

That was the walk of a guy who'd been
down the road, paid his dues, learned the

business, got over despite what
anybody else thought about him.

This guy's not marketable.

He's never going
to draw no money.

The company finally picked me,
and that's the guy walking to the ring.

The character of Stone Cold Steve
Austin was a very reality-based persona,

which is not what this
industry was built on.

So the whole attitude era that was ushered
in was ushered in as an extension of the

personality that was brought
out by Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And that makes him, in many ways, the
most pivotal human being and character

in pro wrestling history.

Now we have to
go a little bit higher.

Now we have to
go a little bit bigger.

Stone Cold's success in the attitude
era can be attributed to many people.

But in order for your star hero to
become successful, he has to have real,

viable villains.

Vince McMahon was the
greatest villain in the attitude era.

Bar none.

Vince would show up in some
way, take away that thing that

you desperately wanted as
a fan, and it drove me insane.

And that's why the attitude
era was so popular, was

that Vince versus Stone
Cold, you know, rivalry.

Vince and I were tailor-made
for each other to work together.

Vince was unique
because he was the owner.

Now he's feuding with me.

It's a real storyline.

You can kiss my ass!

All of a sudden, it wasn't
just about wrestling.

It was about this guy who was
an employee against his boss.

And everybody's an
employee that has a boss.

And a lot of times,
the employee has not

liked what the boss
has done or said to him.

Screw you!

You're fired!

Vince is crazy.

He really is.

That stuff is not fair.

Far from what Vince would
do as to what Mr. McMahon did.

Mr. McMahon is a character
that's no way in the world like me.

We'll start with that.

But he's arrogant.

I am a handsome,
affluent entrepreneur.

He's rich.

I said black tie.

He can treat people like crap.

The thought of you, Austin, makes me
physically ill, makes me want to vomit!

Everyday people saw something of
themselves in Steve, and they saw Mr.

McMahon as the system
that was holding them down.

Nobody, especially Vince
McMahon, tells Stone Cold

Steve Austin what to do,
and that's the bottom line.

It was the consummate
working class hero,

Stone Cold Steve Austin,
against the machine.

Steve was the rage
against the machine.

The lipstick is here!

Oh, my God, I
don't believe this.

That's one of the core events
of Mr. McMahon's collection.

That's a $50,000 car!

At that time, everybody wanted
to be Stone Cold Steve Austin.

He captured everybody's
feelings perfectly.

You are the world's
dumbest son of a bitch!

Vince was like a kid in a
candy store getting to work

with me, because he always
wanted to be a wrestler.

He finally got a chance to perform,
not just oversee and give instructions.

If you go back, man, you
watch some of the blue jeans I

wore, some of the shorts I
wore would get ringing tight.

I couldn't physically pick
my leg up high enough.

Always the target is the gut.

But when you can't pick
your leg up high enough,

right below the
stomach is the testicles.

He didn't know where
those kicks were coming.

You know, he really,
he had no idea.

He had no idea.

He was gonna make contact with
something that was in front of him.

So many times, I kicked him right in
the jewels and he just went... Steve.

You know, if Steve kicks you in the
Netherlands or something like that,

it's easy to sell that.

We had to keep upping
the game a little bit, so...

What could Stone
Cold do to up the ante?

We had boards of stuff.

What the hell can Steve do?

Something crazy.

I don't know, drive a
Zamboni to the ring.

Seriously, that's
how it happened?

It was a Zamboni incident.

We did, but I didn't have a lot
of experience in the hospital.

There you see
Mr. McMahon via satellite.

I want apple juice.

Oh, man, that was a great one.

So I go out there.

How about you, doctor?

Oh, I'll take it
from here, nurse.

Go down!

I said, man, I'm worried about
hitting you with that bed pan.

It was almost a
stainless steel bed pan.

Man, that's something
that just, it was hard.

He goes, oh, god
damn, Steve, you got to.

And I'm watching Steve as he's walking
up and down the hallway, the hospital,

and he's hitting his head
with the damn bed pan.

I was kinda just bouncing
it with the damn bed pan.

When you hit people with objects for
a living you become an expert at hitting

people, you know,
with objects for a living.

So when I swung it, boy I just reached
up and grabbed it and nailed him with it.

It ain't ballet as the
expression goes, you know.

I love Vince.

The guy would do
absolutely anything for me.

And I would for him too.

Again, every now and then someone
very special would come along.

And, um, Steve's that.

Man, there was a period there where
everything we did was a home run and a

grand slam, and if you had a
double or triple, that was a bad day.

At his peak, Steve was one of the
most recognizable faces in the world.

Austin 316 shirts were now on Spencer's
Gifts and Hot Topic and Wall Street.

You go to Walmart and you go in
Foley's or Macy's and there's Austin 316.

It was everywhere.

And of course, you know,
he had one quarter where

he even had a million
dollar selling t-shirts.

If you look at any sales
chart, Steve Austin's

t-shirts are still amongst
the best sellers in WWE.

To this day!

Well, it first hit me when me and my
wife would love to go to Las Vegas.

Every single person I
saw walk in the streets,

everybody has Steve
Austin t-shirts on.

It was crazy.

If you turned on the TV,
all of the night shows...

Please welcome Stone
Cold, Steve Austin!

Man, it's good to be here.

Any show like
that, he was on it.

Commercials...

Can I get one more of those?

Sure.

Wrestling just came
in like a tsunami.

Thanks, Dad.

That helps.

SportsCenter wasn't
embracing wrestling back then.

And I just remember this tidal wave
of whether you're accepting us or not,

here we come.

He wasn't even a wrestling fan.

But he was so big, he
crossed over into mainstream.

We'd like to welcome back
Stone Cold, Steve Austin.

He was bigger than wrestling.

People who aren't
wrestling fans or don't care

about wrestling, even they
knew who Stone Cold was.

When you cross over like that,
that's when, you know, you've made it.

Hey man.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

When Austin 316 became so hot and
everybody had heard about it, that we

would be, you know,
in an airport and I'd get

preachers and priests and
religious people, you know.

They'd say, hey man, is it
okay if I get your autograph?

And I'd say, sure.

I said, I thought you'd be mad at
me for inventing the Austin 316 thing.

They'd say, oh
no, we don't care.

Steve's legacy is one that kind of
makes it hard for us to be WWE superstars.

His impact is felt in a way that none
of us can kind of compare to him.

You know, we certainly try,
but there's always going to

be somebody somewhere
that's going to say, pretty good.

Not Stone Cold though.

When it was at its peak during
the Attitude Era, it was Mob City.

It's like the
Beatles just landed.

It was amazing.

It sounds glamorous, but
you're choosing to be on the road.

A lot.

You have to love the business
to put yourself through that.

That's where you really
start evaluating your entire life.

Man, when you're running
like I was, at my peak, it's

hard to do anything other
than be a pro wrestler.

Because it consumes
everything about you.

You are in go mode 24-7, 365.

You are a slave to the road.

And you never want
to come off the road

because if you come
off the road, you get soft.

So I was never home.

That's a recipe for disaster.

It all looks fun when
you're seeing it on TV.

But it ain't always TV.

TV's a very small part of the life that
you live when you're doing that job.

The pressure was
immense for him.

And part of that was, I think,
because he had so much going on.

As the pressures mounted
around him work-wise, he had a

lot of pressures at home
and a lot of pressures at work.

He had a lot of
pressures with his family.

It was a lot.

It was a lot.

You know, that's the
thing about the business.

You've got all the personal
problems that everybody else does.

I've got two daughters.

Stephanie Britt's the oldest.

Cassie Skye's the youngest.

And I remember I came home.

I think when Stephanie
was born, I flew in.

I was in New York City.

We were working in New York.

That was the garden.

And I flew home.

I was there for her birth.

And then as soon as
she was born, I held her.

I gave her like
her first bottle.

I got on an airplane.

And I was in Pittsburgh
that night working.

The truth is even guys that were married
and had families and things like that,

they were more married to
the road and the business.

To be successful in this industry,
you have to be willing to commit an

enormous amount of time
away from being home.

There's just no
other way to do it.

It's an extremely
difficult life.

It really is.

If you have a family, so do you.

It's so difficult.

It's so difficult on everybody.

I think that's probably
why there's such a

high rate of divorce
and things of that nature.

I try to not bring
up that stuff.

I knew what
family life was like.

It's unsatisfying.

It's a source of consternation.

It's a source of crying
children and heartbreak.

It's a source of
unhappy spouses.

It's not like you're making
a conscious decision.

Hey, I'm putting everybody
else on the back burner.

But I decided to get a divorce.

You know, when you go
through a divorce, they're chaotic.

So obviously, you're
very distracted.

I was living in a house, but once I
decided to get a divorce, I moved

literally about two or three miles
down the road in a little double-wide.

And although I was going through pain or
whatever goes with a divorce, when I moved

into that double-wide,
me and a double-wide,

for some reason,
there's synergy.

I had two cinder blocks with a
1x12 plank where my TV was.

I had my cooler,
you know, full of beer.

It's too bad that the
marriage didn't work out,

but I found comfort and
solace in that double-wide.

You can be in the business
and you can still live a full

life, but everything else
is kind of like white noise.

I'm putting all my chips in my own
basket, and this is what I'm doing.

And that was the first and
foremost priority was me.

Selfish I was, and I was
going to ride myself and

everything that the
business had to get to the top.

I was going to step up
and do the best I could.

There's a sacrifice to greatness,
and it's a price that a lot of people are

not willing to pay, because
there is an intensity to it.

There is an obligation to your own vision
and dreams that you have to service at all

costs over and above everyone
else in your life, including yourself.

Your own self-interests
take a back seat to your

dreams and aspirations of
what you want to achieve.

He's had multiple
marriages that fell apart.

He's had multiple friendships
that will never be repaired.

But that's the price you pay
to look back on a body of work

and have everyone else around
you say he changed the game.

Man, I am very demanding.

I was a professional wrestler.

It's what I lived and died for.

He took a lot of things.

He took a lot of
things personally.

He wanted everything to be
perfect, and he always wanted

to be challenged with new
information and creative.

It kept your star happy.

Keep your talent
happy as best you can.

If you don't build new stars, you
can't feed the superstars at the top.

So when Steve became the
big star in the business, he knew

he needed a fresh rotation of
brand-new stars to work with.

Mr. McMahon couldn't be that equal because
once they got into the ring together,

it wasn't a very good match.

He needed someone that
you could honestly look at and

say, this guy can measure
up to Stone Cold Steve Austin.

If you smell what
The Rock is cooking.

To build an opponent for
Stone Cold, that opponent should

be on TV regularly and go
six months without losing.

Start planting those seeds.

Can you imagine
what this guy is going to

be like when he takes
on Stone Cold someday?

My first couple of years in the
business, I watched this guy, Steve Austin,

ascend to the top and start to
achieve this incredible popularity.

And I would just quietly watch in the
shadows, study his behavior and watch how

he operated because that was
a position that I wanted to be in.

And I think he knew that.

I just remember watching
him starting to gain momentum,

starting to establish a
relationship with the crowd.

He's starting to get over.

There's something here.

I need to watch this.

And I remember him saying something to the
effect of, there's something there, kid.

There's something there.

There was also this bond like
he was a big brother in a way.

And then we knew that
we were going to converge

and that we were
going to work together.

And as far as The Rock
is concerned, the greatest

book ever written is the
one titled The Rock vs.

Stone Cold.

Steve Austin.

They were natural together.

They had great chemistry.

I think that Steve and
Rock liked each other.

So that helped.

And they both rode that wave.

Rock!

Stone Cold!

And WrestleMania!

I love their relationship
with The Rock and Steve

because they were both
very, very competitive.

They were always wondering how the
other was feeling, how the other was doing.

They never left
each other's radar.

They pushed each other.

They made each other better.

In the world of pro wrestling,
you can only control so much.

And after that, it
becomes the intangible.

I'm right there on the camera.

He can do it all!

I'm out of seconds!

I'm done!

And that intangible, what
everybody searches for, is chemistry.

I knew exactly what he
was going to do all the time.

He knew exactly what I
was going to do all the time.

That's just kind of the
special thing that you just feel.

It's like watching two comets fly
through the sky and hit each other.

It never happens.

We know all the metrics!

I think it was the apex.

I mean, it was really the peak.

And Steve Austin and The Rock were
the two hottest stars in the business.

We were fighting for
the exact same thing.

And that was the
number one top spot in the

company at a time where
the company was on fire.

It's really rarefied air.

And we were fighting
for that rarefied air.

But it was out of so much
love and so much respect.

It kind of was so fun to watch.

Being privileged to see
something like that where

you have these two big
talents coming together.

It's a new champion!

Man, that was a great ride.

Rock and I never
rode the roads together.

He ran with a different crowd.

But whenever we see each other,
it's just like the last time we left off.

It's a friendship
that is forever.

That was a guy who looked at me and
said, you, you and me, we're gonna go.

And we're gonna go to the dance.

That decision to take me, if you
will, under his wing, it changed my life.

Steve's gonna be the first one to tell you
that he's got just a core group of friends.

I mean, he's not gonna just be your
best friend just to be your best friend.

They say it's lonely at the top.

And I think Steve
was pretty lonely.

I ran with myself.

I was a lone wolf.

My place was on top of
that roster, on top of that car.

There's so much jealousy.

I really love the thing I came up with
years ago, DTA, don't trust anybody.

DTA, don't trust anyone,
makes for a good catchphrase.

I don't know if it's the best
way to go through life, but I

think that is how Steve went
through his life at that time.

The DTA, don't trust anyone thing,
that wasn't Steve playing a character.

Angry, bitter, paranoid.

Like, there was a lot of that.

Steve's a very private guy.

He just is.

He never really talked
about his home life.

Every now and then, he'd tell you
something about his family, but for the

most part, he kept
all that stuff to himself.

People have always asked
me about my daughters.

In the past, I haven't
talked too much about them.

And it's because of
the strained relationship

that it was and me
being gone all the time.

I never won father of the year
because I'm purely on the road.

If I'm gonna come home from my two
days off every now and then, I'm gonna cook

some flank steaks on
the grill and drink beer.

That's as much
as I'm contributing.

I hate to say that,
that's the way it was.

They knew that I loved
them, but I wasn't there.

Back in 2001, my wife took the kids over
to England to visit her side of the family.

9-11 happened, and
then that's when everybody

was, or at least
she was afraid to fly.

They kind of stayed over there.

I was always gone anyway,
so what's the big deal?

So they stayed over there,
and they kept staying over there.

And as time went on, well, I
called Stephanie just to talk to them,

and we started talking, and
she had a proper London accent.

When I hung up the
phone, I started crying like a

baby because she used
to sound exactly like I do.

For better or for worse, without the four
letter words, she had my same accent.

And to hear her with an English accent,
yeah, that shook me up because I was like,

okay, what did I do wrong?

Or could I have done better?

That's the bottom line,
because Stone Cold said so.

Now that they're older, we're on the
way to building better relationships.

So now they're
pursuing their own things.

I support them.

If I can give them
any advice, I do.

Through all the BS that has happened,
we're talking now, the relationships,

as strained as they were, they're
better now, but it's still a building block

because truly, after all these
years, we still don't know each other.

As well as we should.

That was the Faustian bargain that he
cut with himself in order to myopically,

obsessively go after the success that
he knew in his heart he could achieve.

You have to get it while you can and
then hope that you can make up for all the

other stuff that you
put on the bottom shelf

while you went out
and lived your dream.

There's a lot of
casualties that come with

that and you have to
be willing to accept that.

Your window's really small.

For most guys, it
really is a small window.

He always felt like he was gonna lose
his spot in line if he was not on the road.

I can't be home.

I gotta be on the road with the rest of
the guys because somebody else is gonna

have a great match, they're
gonna be noticed, and I'm not.

The drive for that, the lust for
that, he could never get away from.

Any time that someone is successful,
they have a hands-on approach,

Steve had a very hands-on
approach when it came

to the presentation of
what he was going to do.

Steve was very demanding, but
Steve could be guilty of, this sucks.

Okay, it sucks, Steve.

What do you want to
do to make it better?

I don't know.

Goddamn, you're a writer.

Write something.

Steve would get mad,
throw it away, and storm off.

This was at a time when The Rock
was taking a break in Hollywood.

And Stone Cold Steve
Austin needed a new equal.

Steve would have been very
easy to maintain and manage

if we'd always had a good
opponent ready for him.

And why wouldn't you?

I think that's what led to
a lot of Steve's frustration.

Complaining about his opponents, you
know, complaining who he's working with.

He wasn't getting
red hot billets.

Nobody's ready, and
nobody's been groomed for me.

The process had failed him.

When the creative stuff
started going south a little bit, it

had a more profound effect on
him than it would a lot of guys.

Because he felt like this
foundation was starting to crack.

I was like, dude,
what is going on here?

When you've been trying so hard so long
to be that guy and you get that chance,

you ain't letting it go.

I found out what creative had in
mind for Steve and Brock Lesnar.

And I confirmed it with Vince.

Oh, you're going to work with
Brock tonight and you're going to lose.

And it certainly was
very premature to try to

have Steve and Brock
wrestle with no buildup.

This is a match that can
sell out indoor stadiums.

But there's no story there.

It was thrown together.

And it meant nothing.

Jim Ross calls me with the
creative for Monday Night Raw.

Tells me, long story short, that
I'm doing a job for Brock Lesnar.

I said, oh really?

I said, well, if that's going to be
the case, I ain't going to be there.

So sure enough, I woke up.

I had two Bloody Marys.

Got on an airplane and I
was flying back to San Antonio.

And I was mad.

It ain't about
winning or losing.

I'll let anybody beat me.

As long as it's for a
reason, it means something.

And there's money behind it.

And so I said, I ain't doing it.

And I went home.

It was over.

I was done.

And it cost me a lot of respect
from my peers, a lot of money.

And that's what I did.

And as they said it, I took
my ball and went home.

It felt like you kicked
everybody in their co-unions.

You know?

It felt like all of a
sudden, wait a minute.

What is wrong with him?

How is he thinking this way?

To his credit, Vince
called me three times.

He left me a voice
message each time.

I never called him back.

I didn't want to talk
to him on the phone.

I was still hot.

And for about six months, I was hunting,
fishing and drinking and not necessarily

in that order and making
a lot of bad decisions.

You know, just
time was going by.

Finally, I'm going
through my mail.

There's a card from Jim Ross.

I didn't expect a
card from Jim Ross.

Hey, man.

Just checking on you.

I want to see if you're okay.

If you ever want to
talk, give me a call.

And I felt right then that that was
my friend throwing me a lifeline.

I called him up.

It was back when they had
those old Motorola flip phones.

I burned through two
batteries talking to Jim.

We did speak for hours.

Life, football, you know,
booking, marriage, relationships.

Boy, he really needed to talk.

He goes, hey, man, do you think if I ever
put you in the old man or the building,

you can hash this out and put it
behind you and come back to work?

I said, I'd love that.

He facilitated the meeting
between myself and Vince.

And I'm thinking, man,
we're gonna fight or hug.

We started talking.

We hashed it out.

I told him what I was thinking.

And we got back
on the same track.

And then shortly
thereafter, I returned to work.

It's good to see you.

Very good.

When I did come back,
I knew what I'd done.

So I remember going up to
basically the whole locker room.

Yeah, I apologized
to a lot of guys.

And it was warranted.

Well, Stone Cold
Steve Austin is back.

I can guarantee you that
I am gonna raise more

hell in this ring than
I've ever raised in my life.

I came back for a few months,
but, man, it's a hard-ass job.

I was backstage with
Bruce Prichard one time,

and I just kept having
this nerve jump in my leg.

And it was just like everything in
my nervous system was so shot.

You know, the atrophy in my
hands and other things that I

was going through was, like,
finally starting to unwind me.

It's like, dude, when is your
body gonna give you enough

signals that you need to
get your ass out of here?

The feeling was basically that he had
pushed the limits as far as he could and

that it was time to... he didn't
want to push him anymore.

And I think Steve just
saw the writing on the wall.

I can't imagine how
agonizing it was for Steve

to make the decision
that his career was over.

He had to resign himself to the fact
this is as far as the character goes.

Now, the question
then would become, who

will he wrestle and
what will be the outcome?

Steve, being an old-school guy,
wanted to go out the right way.

He wanted to be Rock.

He owed it to Rock.

But he didn't want to
distract from the Rock

getting a win by him
saying this is his last match.

So we kept that confidential.

It was a professional
thing to do.

And it shows great love
and respect for Dwayne.

It's bigger than wrestling.

I just like The Rock.

And so I didn't tell
hardly anybody at all.

Obviously, Vince
knew, Jim Ross knew.

And I told The Rock.

When I found out that
his last match was going

to be with me, I had
really mixed emotions.

You know, we hugged, and it makes
me a little emotional now because it is the

ending of a career that
has been so influential on

not only me, but the world
of wrestling that we love.

It hurt to walk away.

It was a real tough
decision to make.

But I just figured it was
the best decision for me.

I think the days leading into it, to
WrestleMania 19, were miserable for him.

How am I going to do?

How am I going to deliver?

What are the
people going to say?

How do I look?

The day before
WrestleMania, I was at the gym.

This was at a time where I was drinking
about three bottles of wine a night,

two pots of coffee in
the morning to get up,

and a bunch of energy
drinks to get you going.

Really dehydrated.

Man, my feet kept jumping,
just nervous reactions.

I was like, man,
what is going on?

And I was staying at the Grand
Hyatt Hotel there in Seattle.

And I went up to the
floor that I was on.

As soon as I got out of the elevator,
man, my heart started beating out of my

chest so hard and fast,
it scared the out of me.

And I was thinking,
man, I'm dying.

I just got my number called.

I'm gone.

And there was a WWE employee named
Liz DeFabio coming down the hallway.

And I looked at her, and
she could see that I was

as serious as a heart
attack, no pun intended.

And I said, Liz, I'm in trouble.

They take me down to the emergency
room, and they put all these tests on me.

They thought I had a
pulmonary embolism.

They thought a bunch of things.

And the thing was that I was just
basically dehydrated, drinking too much

alcohol and way too much caffeine,
and finally, you know, it was time to stop.

So Vince and I were there.

He put too much on himself.

He worried too much.

He overthought the situation.

So I woke up the next morning.

The doctor didn't
want to discharge me.

He wouldn't clear me to wrestle.

But I was going to wrestle, and
I was going to wrestle The Rock.

Getting to the building...

I was walking around, seeing
everybody going through the motion.

Hey, Mark.

Hey, Steve.

How you doing?

If I talked to anybody or hardly said
anything, I was about to start crying.

When you're making the decision
to walk away from your number-one

passion that you live for, oh,
man, I'll make this go away.

So I was like this all day long.

And then, of course, you
know, we get ready for the match.

It's like, okay, man, I'm just
going to turn it on, rip it up.

You know, if your
heart explodes.

If I died in the ring, hey, man,
what better place to go than in Mania,

in the middle of the
ring, with The Rock?

So, you know, you can't
plan a better death than that.

The Rock said he
was going to confront...

Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I take it all in.

I feel everything.

And I sense everything.

The smell, the feel, the
love, the tone of that building.

It ain't about nothing but
a wrestling match between

two of the greatest that
have ever been in the ring.

Oh, hell!

That's a two-slide!

Oh, my God!

And The Rock, is
he going to do it?

Big one!

Oh, God!

Rock got him!

I burned Rock got him!

I hooked up a leg!

And I hit the line!

When that three-count
hit, it was like...

I was just laying there.

It was like someone lifted 1,000
pounds of bricks off my back.

Damn near 70,000
people in that building.

A couple men watching
on pay-per-view.

We were both laying
in the middle of the ring.

And I sat up.

And I remember I pushed
the referee, Earl Hebner, away.

He knew that I was going.

He knew that I
didn't want to go.

And this was a hard
decision for me to make.

I lowered my head down
to Steve's ear and I said, I

can't thank you enough for
everything that you have done.

And then I said, I love you.

I remember just laying
there in front of 70,000 men.

I said, man, I love you too.

I told him I loved him.

Verbatim, I said,
I love you too.

Two big-ass, tough-ass
guys telling each other that

they loved the other one
in front of millions of people.

I felt like that was
the time to tell.

Because there is no other moment in our
world where we are as raw and open and

vulnerable than in
that moment right there.

When the one, two,
three happens, it's just two

men who have gone
on this incredible journey.

You know, I have goosebumps
now thinking about it.

That was the moment
to say, man, I love you.

And I can't thank you enough.

What makes Steve's career different
than most others is just how hot he got,

how fast he got hot, and how
short of a time he had to enjoy it.

I was seeing the end as something
that will never be replicated.

Seeing the end of a moment in a pop culture
genre that will never be reproduced.

Now I can go enjoy.

That's the kind of life
that I have in front of me.

You know, retirement always
sounds good, and then there I was.

I was doing nothing.

I was going crazy.

Straight up, man, I hit
the bottle pretty hard.

I do know that he was a bit lost after,
you know, having to leave the business,

trying to redefine himself and
see what is life after wrestling.

He had three years that he
talked about how he was just

drinking and eating and
just a little bit depressed.

I'll tell you this true story.

Woke up one morning, I was
looking right at myself in the mirror.

I said, dude, the things that you are doing
are not conducive to living a long life.

You better straighten
your ass up.

It took me three years
of being a up to come

to my senses to say,
you know, you know what?

You had to quit the business.

You ain't doing nothing now.

You better get
your ass out to L.A.

and try to capitalize on at
least, you know, some part

of the name that you spent
so long trying to build up.

Look at me, you piece of trash.

I heard you been running around
saying you could take me in a fight.

I wouldn't say that.

Let's get busy, Hollywood.

And initially, I came out to
California to get into acting.

I quickly realized that I
didn't really want to do that.

And when I found hosting
and reality television-type

stuff, that's when I knew
I'd kind of found my niche.

I'm Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Jerry the King Lawler.

My next guest on
Brumpet Skull Sessions.

Check it out.

And that's the bottom
line, because I said so.

And so I started
podcasting, and the reason

I started was just
keeping touch with people.

I guess it was just
all built on the history

of what I put forth
inside the squared circle.

He's got podcasts that he does.

He's got TV shows he hosts.

I would say the biggest difference between
the Stone Cold we see now and the Stone

Cold we saw back then, he
doesn't have the pressure.

I'm a civilian now.

It took me a while to turn into
a civilian, but I'm a civilian now.

My problem is, man,
I'm type-A personality.

So I'm always in a hurry.

I'm in a hurry when I
don't have anything to do.

This is Brownie.

Our chocolate lab we
rescued about three weeks ago.

These are my Kawasaki KRX 1000s.

This is my Corvette.

This is a KLX 450.

This truck right here
is a 1966 Chevy C2.

I'm not a wrestler anymore.

I had a good time doing it.

But at the end of the
day, now it's about life.

You step through the curtain,
you're in front of the paying customer.

And that's where you gotta be the person
they perceive you to be on television.

You're

that person from the first
step through the curtain

until the last step back
through the curtain.

You're a performer out there.

Talk about your songs.

Talk about John 316.

Austin 316 says, I
just whipped your ass.

Austin did it!

Austin did it!

Nobody tells Stone Cold
Steve Austin what to do.

And that's the bottom line.

Because Stone Cold says so.

When you come back
through the curtain, you're out.

And those human beings are
worried at that moment when

they've stepped back through
the curtain, was I good?

Did they like me?

Did I do all I could do?

Did I maximize my minutes?

Coming back through, it's
where the rubber meets the road.

That curtain is a big thing.

And how you navigate the curtain and
how you react on both sides of it largely

spells your success in
the pro wrestling business.

Look, I got placed in a
real good situation and I got

a chance to have a lot of
fun doing something I love.

But, like, I still feel like I'm sitting
here in this damn chair and I'm still

Steve, the dude from Edna.

In my mind and in
my eyes, that's me.