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00:01Yes, sir, we promised you a great man.
00:03Oh, I got this.
00:03Oh, I see here.
00:04Andre.
00:05It's a child.
00:06Whistle mania.
00:06Whistle mania is running wild.
00:08My God, what the hell?
00:09He missed the man.
00:11Hell yeah.
00:13It's not a world that's launching.
00:22I'm going to tell you a story about a man named Stone Cold Steve Austin.
00:25Stunning Steve Austin is by far the hottest athlete in WCW.
00:32Time for a visit from the extreme superstar Steve Austin.
00:38Stone Cold has an opportunity to make himself a real big name.
00:46Give me a hell yeah.
00:49Hell yeah.
01:07I was born in Austin, Texas, but we didn't stay there long.
01:10Parents got divorced, and we headed down to a town named Victoria.
01:14Lived there for a couple of years, and then ended up moving closer to Houston.
01:18Only 25 miles down the road to a little town called Edna, and that's where me and my brothers
01:22all went to high school.
01:24My parents still lived there, as a matter of fact.
01:27Just growing up, and one day flipping channels, saw a show.
01:32It was called Houston Wrestling.
01:34I grew up watching that and fell in love with it back then, but I never figured, you know,
01:39things would happen as they did.
01:42When you grow up in a small town in South Texas, I mean, pretty much everybody plays football.
01:46And although I played other sports also, football was my main focus.
01:50I was good enough to get a scholarship to junior college.
01:53After I played junior college, I got a scholarship to play football at North Texas State.
01:57The good thing about that was North Texas State was about 30 miles from Dallas, Texas.
02:01And that's, of course, home to the world-famous Sportatorium, where the Von Eriks used to
02:06fight the Freebirds.
02:07Every Friday night, I was there watching the Von Eriks and the Freebirds go at it.
02:11Week after week, that's all I watched.
02:14I remember I was watching world-class championship wrestling one night in my dorm, and I saw that
02:18there was a professional wrestler there in Dallas, Texas, named Gentleman Chris Adams,
02:21who was going to have a wrestling school.
02:23Decided to enroll, and five months later, after, you know, mediocre training at best,
02:29I had my first match there at Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas.
02:32I won the first match in front of the crowd for the first time.
02:35Very nerve-wracking.
02:36I just knew that I was going to mess up a lot of stuff.
02:39Match was brutally bad.
02:41I was extremely green, you know, as, of course, you are when you first start the business.
02:45It takes a lot of repetition to become really, really good at it.
02:48And I was bad.
02:54I'd been wrestling in Dallas for about two months, and they were usually beating the tar
02:58out of me, but, I mean, really, really beating me, because you really had to pay your dues,
03:02and I don't remember winning a match for an extremely long time.
03:06It was after a couple of months of this that I asked Jerry Jarrett, who was the owner at
03:10the time.
03:10He just bought a world-class championship wrestling from Fritz Von Erich.
03:13He bought the territory and renamed it the USWA, which was based out of Tennessee.
03:19So I said, Jerry, I said, you know, when do you think I might be able to start being
03:22booked full-time?
03:23He goes, well, I think you're ready now, Steve.
03:25So he said, we'll send you to Memphis here in a couple of weeks.
03:28I think I'd been in USWA for about a year and a half, almost two years.
03:32But some people down here in World Championship Wrestling heard of me.
03:36They'd seen a few of the matches on TV.
03:38I went down there and interviewed with Dusty Rhodes, who was booking the territory.
03:43Had long blonde hair at the time.
03:44I was already wrestling a stunning Steve Austin, and pretty much Dusty just said, okay, we'll
03:49start you off, and we're going to pay you $75,000 for your first year.
03:53And that sounded pretty good at the time, because, I mean, I was used to making $20 to $40 a
03:57night
03:57and starving, so all of a sudden you get a big contract, that's a huge contract back
04:01in the day, and $75,000, and that's how I got my start there in WCW.
04:08From Hollywood, California, weighing 258 pounds, stunning Steve Austin.
04:18I remember I'd been at WCW for quite a while.
04:20I'd been the TV champion, getting my first title from beautiful Bobby, and I'm expecting
04:26to get a big singles push, and they're going to put me with Harley Race, and they're going
04:30to start building me up pretty strong.
04:32And I remember going down to a TV, and here comes Brian Pillman.
04:36He comes up to me, and he goes, hey, Steve, we need to come up with a finish move.
04:39We're a tag team now.
04:41And I said, well, what the hell are you talking about?
04:43He goes, yeah, I just got finished talking to Dusty.
04:45We're going to be a tag team.
04:46Well, I went down and found Dusty, because this is the night I'm supposed to start the Harley
04:49race.
04:50And he said, no, no, no, we're going to do something different with you guys.
04:54And so there, that night, Flying Brian and I became a tag team, and he had on his Cincinnati
05:00Bengal trunks.
05:01I had on some bogus, cheap trunks that I'd had made, and we were a tag team.
05:07I remember as time went on, we'd drive down the road, and then things started to click
05:11with me and Brian.
05:13We enjoyed hanging around each other.
05:15He had a great sense of humor.
05:17All we did was laugh going up and down the road, and he said, you know, Steve, every good
05:21tag team's got to have a name.
05:22And I said, yeah.
05:24And so we came up with the Hollywood Blondes.
05:26Well, pretty much he came up with the Hollywood Blondes.
05:28And, you know, then he was to go get us the gold necklaces that we wore, and then he was
05:32to get our matching outfits that we wore, the vest, everything.
05:35It was all bright.
05:39I remember loading up my 1988 Hyundai Excel and driving from Dallas to Memphis, there at
05:46the Mid-South Coliseum, where I was going to meet Dutch Mantell, who was booking the territory.
05:50And upon walking in that building, he said, well, what's your name?
05:53And I said, well, it's Steve Williams, because that's what I started off as, my given name.
05:58And he goes, well, you can't be that here.
06:00And I said, why not?
06:01He goes, well, you just can't.
06:03And the biggest reason was because Dr. Death Steve Williams had already come through there,
06:07and there'd be confusion on the card.
06:09I remember Dutch telling me, he goes, all right, you've got 15 minutes to come up with a name.
06:13And he comes back in 15 minutes, and I'm in a territory where I've never met any of those
06:17guys.
06:18I'm at the Mid-South Coliseum.
06:19I'm nervous as hell.
06:21And he says, what'd you come up with?
06:22I said, I didn't come up with anything.
06:24He goes, okay, you're going to be Steve Austin.
06:26I said, well, I don't want to be Steve Austin.
06:28And the reason I didn't want to be Steve Austin was because I used to watch Six Million
06:31Dollar Man, and I don't want to copy anybody.
06:33So he says, all right, you've got five minutes to come up with a name.
06:35He comes up in five minutes.
06:37He goes, what'd you come up with?
06:38Here I am trying to make a decision that's going to affect the rest of my career or my life.
06:42And I didn't have anything.
06:44He goes, all right, you're Steve Austin.
06:47And that's how I got the Steve Austin name.
06:50Terry Funk is a legend in a business, and history that he brings to the ring, from his
06:56with his brother, Dory, to their father, Dory Sr., the Funks are legends.
07:00And I've always looked up to Terry Funk.
07:02I love watching him work in the ring.
07:05I love the unpredictability, the entertainment factor that he brings in his matches.
07:09When you heard and listened to Terry Funk cut a promo,
07:12Who told you to come in here?
07:15We've got no business.
07:16We're going to go take it off.
07:18We've got no money.
07:18We've got no money.
07:18What are you saying, Phil?
07:19Get out of here.
07:21Get out of here.
07:23That's what I thought and think that Terry Funk brought to the business.
07:30It turned out to be a hell of a run, and we were having a lot of fun, and things
07:34were
07:35really starting to go good.
07:36And then the thing about it was me and Brian were just put together basically to be an
07:40interim tag team.
07:41They never expected us to be a successful tag team.
07:44Basically, we were going to be a tag team that would work with other teams, give them
07:47a heck of a match, and then they would beat us.
07:50Well, it kind of backfired.
07:51All of a sudden, people started really responding to what we were doing, entertaining a lot
07:56of people, but they expected us not to be successful.
07:58When we became successful and weren't really designed to be successful, they decided to
08:04split us up.
08:06Brian went his way, and I went mine, and neither one of us were very happy about it.
08:10And then, of course, if you're going to split up a tag team, it's only natural that those
08:14guys feud together initially.
08:16So, all of a sudden, you went from two guys who loved being Hollywood blondes and really
08:21enjoyed each other and had so much fun together, and we're feuding together.
08:27After Brian and I split up, I kind of got a little bit of a run, and then, you know,
08:33I
08:33had a few injuries, basically.
08:35I knew WCW wasn't particularly enamored with anything about me.
08:39I wasn't necessarily stunning, as part of my name was, Stunning Steve Austin.
08:44I really hadn't found myself.
08:45I couldn't put all the pieces together yet, and I'd been there for almost five years.
08:51I remember I was working with a guy named Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, one of my favorite
08:55guys to ever get in the ring with, unbelievably awesome talent.
08:58And because he'd already been with the WWE before, and now I was working with him, he was
09:03a great guy that I could ask advice from.
09:06And I said to him, I said, Ricky, I said, what do you think I'm missing?
09:09You know, what do I need to do to get higher on the card?
09:12And he thought about it for a second, and he goes, Steve, I don't think you're missing
09:16anything.
09:17You know, I don't want to tell you.
09:19But Pure Now was basically a mechanic at that point, and I still hadn't found the it or the
09:25X factor to being a big draw.
09:29WCW, kind of, the writing was on the wall.
09:32Eric Bischoff was the head of the company at that point.
09:34Didn't see me as being a marketable wrestler with black trunks, black boots, nothing fancy,
09:40and almost fired me prior to me tearing my tricep off my arm.
09:45So it was a very strange time here.
09:47I remember I was in Georgia, got a message on my cell phone that I needed to call Eric
09:52Bischoff.
09:53So I went to the house, and I knew, you know, there had to be bad news because Eric never
09:58called me.
09:59So I got home and called Eric Bischoff, the secretary answered the phone.
10:03Eric gets on the phone.
10:05I said, Eric, it's Steve.
10:06I just call him to, you know, return your call.
10:08He goes, I'm glad you called, Steve.
10:10I just want to let you know that based on the amount of money that we're paying you
10:13and the amount of days that you've been incapacitated, we're going to go out and exercise our right
10:18to terminate the agreement.
10:19And I thought about it just for a second, and I said, well, basically, you're telling me
10:23I'm fired, right?
10:24He goes, yeah.
10:25I said, well, are you going to send me anything in the mail?
10:27He goes, yeah, we'll see you in FedEx tomorrow.
10:29So basically, the next day I got a FedEx.
10:31I was fired.
10:33My tricep still wasn't 100% healed up yet, but it was only a few weeks away before I would
10:37have been healed up.
10:38And there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes politically, and people said, hey,
10:42this guy's never going to be anything, so let's get him out of here.
10:46You know, so Eric fired me, and that was that.
10:49You know, I've been there for about four and a half years and now gone.
10:53I remember I hadn't been fired, but for maybe 24 hours.
10:56The next day, it seems, the phone rings.
10:58It's Paul Heyman, Paulie Dangerously.
11:00He goes, hey, Steve, what's going on?
11:01I said, oh, not much.
11:03He goes, why don't you come down and work for us at ECW?
11:06And I told him flat out, I said, Paul, I said, my arm's hurt.
11:09I said, I can't even work yet.
11:10I can't wrestle.
11:11He goes, you don't have to wrestle.
11:13Just come down and cut provost.
11:16And, well, that was a no-brainer.
11:17I said, okay.
11:18I never really got a chance to cut a lot of provost in WCW.
11:21Every now and then, they'd throw a microphone in front of me and Brian, but nothing with focus or any
11:27kind of intent to develop some mic skills.
11:29So I just remember that weekend, I was headed down to Philadelphia where ECW was located at the world-famous
11:35ECW Arena.
11:38And Paul Heyman just put a microphone in front of my face and said, there you go.
11:42And basically, you know, I'd tell him, you know, well, what do you want me to talk about?
11:46He goes, just talk about anything.
11:49And that's how I got my start down at ECW.
11:51One of the biggest things I enjoyed about ECW was Paul Heyman was so good at working with talent and
11:58trying to help them reach from within, wherever it was.
12:01And I didn't care what your gimmick was.
12:03He had a real knack to do that with anybody he worked with.
12:06And one of the first promos I did, we were down in a basement in a hotel in Philadelphia.
12:12It was about 4.30 in the morning.
12:14And Paul Heyman says, all right, Steve, you're up next.
12:17And I'm sitting there and I said, well, what do you want me to talk about?
12:20I don't know what to say.
12:21He goes, just talk about anything you want.
12:25And he just kind of kept coaching me there for a little bit and said, Steve, just let it fly.
12:30Talk about what you want to talk about.
12:33I was extremely frustrated at the time with Eric Bischoff, with Dusty Rhodes, the booker, with the whole system at
12:39WCW.
12:40And the interview that followed was one of my favorite promos of all time, where I just got a chance
12:45to get a lot of stuff off my chest,
12:48talk about who I wanted to be in the future, about what I'd let myself become in the past.
12:53And, you know, as bad as the system was in WCW, that was the system.
12:57And when I look back, I had every right to be pissed off.
13:00But, you know, when I look back also, they had every right to fire me.
13:03But those ECW promos were some of the most fun promos I've ever done.
13:10And the biggest load off my back for someone to say, hey, Steve, just go ahead and start running your
13:16mouth.
13:16And those interviews would really become the launching pad for the Stone Cold promos, which would follow a couple years
13:24later.
13:25Paulie can certainly take credit for creating a lot of characters, but also he can just take credit and getting
13:33guys just to open up.
13:35And that's what he did with me.
13:36He didn't create a character within me.
13:38He just woke me up and let me open up and share my feelings with everybody.
13:45And I think that that was a very interesting part of being in ECW.
13:50And certainly, if I didn't have ECW, you know, I probably would have come to W.W. eventually, not as
13:59soon.
14:00But I owe a big part of that to ECW and Paulie Dangerously.
14:04You know, the style of ECW wrestling was wide open, anything goes.
14:08I mean, complete brutality.
14:11Certainly, there wasn't a ring that was known for scientific displays of skill.
14:16Until you brought in your Dean Malinkos, your Eddie Guerreros, who specialize in unbelievable technical wrestling with great storytelling.
14:24But by and large, the rest of the crew was just complete brutality, a lot of blood, foreign objects, anything
14:31goes.
14:32I remember the first night I rolled into ECW Arena watching the show.
14:36This was prior to me cutting promos at 4.30 in the morning.
14:38And I remember it was Mick Foley and Terry Funk in the ring.
14:42And it was either Mick Foley or Terry Funk swinging a steel chair with flames all over it.
14:47And the flames shooting the crowd and catches a guy on fire.
14:51And, you know, I'm thinking, holy smokes.
14:54I said, this is my first night here.
14:56And we're about to all get sued.
14:57And I'm not going to have a job anymore.
14:59So the in-ring product was unbelievable brutality.
15:03And that's what they specialized in.
15:05And that's what their people loved.
15:10I remember I got the call to come to WWE.
15:12I was at the house.
15:13And Vince goes, Steve, Vince McMahon, how you doing, pal?
15:17I said, I'm doing pretty good, Vince.
15:19They go, listen.
15:20And then he starts laying the ringmaster routine on me.
15:23They want to bring me in and call me the ringmaster.
15:25I'll be the $1 million champion.
15:27Ted DiBiase is going to be my manager.
15:29And, boy, that all sounded good to me.
15:31And Vince said, well, you know, maybe if you come in here, you can change your look up a little
15:34bit.
15:35They always liked the guys coming with a fresh start.
15:37I'd watched the Pulp Fiction movie with Bruce Willis and, like, the buzz cut that he had in that movie.
15:42So I remember I buzzed all my hair off, came in with a buzz cut, no goatee, wearing emerald green
15:46trunks.
15:47He's not in there trying to impress anybody with how good he looks or, like, how pretty his hair is
15:51or anything.
15:52He just wants to beat up people and win matches.
15:55Although I didn't like the ringmaster name, it sounded like garbage.
15:58But, you know, I wasn't making a whole lot of money working for ECW.
16:02And I knew that WWE was the place to be.
16:04I mean, it was the big leagues, and that's ultimately where you wanted to end up.
16:08The ringmaster, the million-dollar champion.
16:10Took Ted DiBiase a long time, actually, to find someone worthy enough of wearing that million-dollar championship belt.
16:16And it was the beginning of the ringmaster, and it was the beginning of something that wasn't so good.
16:24He's a stone-cold, if anything, and that certainly would describe his heart.
16:29Stone-cold Steve Austin. I love him, McMahon.
16:33They were putting me with a guy named Savio Vega, Puerto Rico, and Savio was a hell of a worker.
16:38And once I got my win back, we started tearing down the houses every single night,
16:42and a lot of times there wouldn't have matches to follow us.
16:45Me and Savio are feuding along, and they've said,
16:48OK, you guys are going to have a Caribbean strap match.
16:50Midway through that match, two-thirds of the way through, the lights go down.
16:54And we're live on pay-per-view.
16:57And so we just keep working, and it's complete dark.
17:01You can see two figures in a ring, and you hear people beating each other with a belt.
17:05We basically finished that match in the dark, and, well, it turns out that we're going to redo the pay
17:09-per-view.
17:10So two nights later, there we are again, right in the middle of another Caribbean strap match.
17:15And I can remember thinking, let me tell you something.
17:18I hope the lights don't go out again, because I don't think I have three of these things in me.
17:24You know, the stipulation going into that Caribbean strap match was that whoever lost,
17:28and, like, if I lost, then I was going to lose my manager, Ted DiBiase.
17:31Ted was pretty much the mouthpiece.
17:33You know, he's always been a wonderful talker, and I wasn't at the time, you know.
17:37So I lost that match, and Ted DiBiase went his way, and I went mine.
17:41But I was ready to go solo and be by myself and take the full weight on my shoulders
17:46and either be responsible for my success or responsible for my lack of success.
17:52It's a funny thing.
17:53When the King of the Ring came around in 1996,
17:55behind the scenes there were some political things that had gone on in Madison Square Garden.
18:01And I was never designed originally to win that King of the Ring.
18:05But because Vince had to drop the hammer on a couple of guys for some disciplined things,
18:09by going into the King of the Ring and wrestling Mark Merrill,
18:13it was a deal where he kicked me in the mouth.
18:15They had to take me to the hospital during the middle of the pay-per-view in an ambulance.
18:18They put 14 stitches in my mouth to close up the top lip.
18:22When I came back in an ambulance, the pay-per-view was still going on,
18:25and I remember Michael PSA comes up to him, and he says,
18:28Steve, I just want you to know you're going to wrestle Jake Snake Roberts in the final.
18:32And while you were gone, you've got a religious-based promo on you.
18:34I remember as soon as he said that, I immediately came up with the Austin 316 thing in my head.
18:41There to hell you! There to hell you! It's over!
18:43As Jake was being carried out of the ring, I told him, I said,
18:46you know, you sit there and you thump your Bibles and you say your prayers,
18:49and it didn't get you anywhere.
18:50Get you anywhere!
18:51Talk about your psalms! Talk about John 316!
18:57Austin 316 says, I just whipped your ass!
19:00Yeah!
19:01Steve Austin's time has come, and that's the bottom line.
19:04Because Stone Cold said so!
19:07Well, the next night at Monday Night Raw, there was Austin 316 signs in the crowd.
19:13There was, Because Stone Cold said so signs, you know, in the crowd.
19:16And if it wasn't for all that stuff, all the flukes and all the lucky breaks,
19:21all of a sudden for me to get my break, that I don't know where my career would have been.
19:26I don't know how far it would have gone.
19:28I don't know if I would have ever been anything other than a good mechanic.
19:31And I remember, as all of the Stone Cold Steve Austin stuff started unfolding,
19:35there was never any, you know, like, game plan or where Vince got together with me and said,
19:40okay, now we're going to try this, and just let it happen, and just go accordingly.
19:45And it just kind of started all unfolding.
19:48I remember when Bret Hart had his comeback match at Madison Square Garden.
19:51It was around 1996, and he handpicks Stone Cold Steve Austin, handpicks him as his comeback
19:58opponent.
19:59That was a great, great match.
20:01But I just felt honored that he picked me to have that match with, that I could handle
20:05a guy and stay with a guy of Bret's caliber.
20:08It meant a lot to the company, you know, as they just kept escalating me and pushing me
20:12harder.
20:16I have never heard an ovation as we are experiencing here for the Rattlesnake, the toughest SOB.
20:24Stunner!
20:25Stone Cold Stunner!
20:27Stone Cold!
20:28Stone Cold!
20:29Stone Cold!
20:30He is bad, and he is nasty!
20:33And perennially pissed off!
20:36Drinking beer, whooping ass, and racing hell.
20:40And that's the bottom line!
20:48WrestleMania 13 with Bret the Head, Man Hart, and Chicago was probably the most important
20:55match of my career.
20:56The biggest thing about that match was I had a busted knee or something like that.
21:00And I remember sitting on my couch watching the show, and I hear the announcement, and
21:05now in a submission match, it's going to be Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Bret the Hit
21:09Man Hart.
21:10And I'm thinking to myself, well, first of all, nobody told me.
21:13I got a busted leg, and now I'm in a submission match, and I'm not a submission wrestler.
21:18You know, anybody that's ever watched in my career, I didn't have a whole lot of moves, and there I
21:22go into WrestleMania 13, and I'm thinking to myself, this is going to be the worst night of my life,
21:27because we're going to stink the joint out.
21:29When we went out there that night, magic happened.
21:32Everything just flowed together.
21:34And all the hell was breaking loose here between Austin and the Hitman.
21:38This is a war at WrestleMania, I love it!
21:41And it was an unbelievable ride.
21:43And then at the end of that match, he would end up walking away as a heel, I would end
21:48up
21:48walking away as the babyface, still in transition, which would follow.
21:52But that match was a very, very important match in my career.
21:57When Austin left here, 18,000 fans were chanting, Austin, Austin.
22:01That's a testament of that man's guts and the admiration these fans have gained for this man here tonight.
22:08Business wasn't doing so good back in.
22:10Undertaker was the hottest thing we had.
22:12I was probably the next hottest thing we had.
22:15So obviously the logic error is to put your two top guys in the ring together and let them have
22:20a match.
22:20I remember watching Undertaker walk to the ring that night.
22:25And all of a sudden the lights go down.
22:27The lighters come up.
22:29The arena is starting to be smoked.
22:30And here comes Undertaker with that slow motion walk he has.
22:33And I'm looking at him and I'm thinking to myself, holy smokes.
22:37I mean, it was just very, very eerie.
22:40Anytime you get a chance to be in the ring and the main event with the Undertaker, it's a good
22:44day at the office.
22:46I remember tagging with Shawn Michaels back in the day.
22:48I was really starting to get hot.
22:49Of course, Shawn was still hot too.
22:51And the biggest thing is, as hot as I was getting, staying up with Shawn Michaels in the ring,
22:55you better pack a lunch because it's going to be a long day at the office.
22:58I don't care if you're in the ring against him or tagging with him.
23:01You better take care of yourself because Shawn's going to take care of himself.
23:05He's one of my favorite performers to ever watch in a ring because I have never seen Shawn Michaels screw
23:10anything up.
23:12Teaming with Shawn was a very interesting thing.
23:13It was kind of like oil and water to a degree.
23:16I think it made for interesting TV because his differences in being the real flashy, good-looking showboat that he
23:23was.
23:24You know, the heartbreaker and the showstopper.
23:26And then you had Stone Cold Steve Austin, just black trunks, black boots, the black vest, pure attitude, and was
23:33just a guy that wasn't going to give you the most multi-dimensional offense, but a guy that's going to
23:39whip your ass.
23:41Interesting combination, and it made for some good stories.
23:44Me and Shawn had our greatest matches in-house shows where there were no cameras.
23:48And that's just the way sometimes it happens in professional wrestling and sports entertainment.
23:53I'll tell you this, Shawn Michaels is absolutely unbelievable.
23:56We've ripped the roof off buildings.
23:58I remember one night in Fresno, I drank about a pot of coffee to keep up with Shawn Michaels that
24:02night.
24:03And I was thinking, okay, I think I might have drank too much coffee.
24:07We killed that place and absolutely blew everybody else off the card, and it was sold out.
24:12I just remember any time I get in the ring with Shawn Michaels, you better bring your best because he
24:16is.
24:17The thing about teaming up with Mick Foley is you never know what you're going to get with Mick.
24:22I mean, that guy is crazy as the axe in the ring.
24:25He's one of the smartest guys out of the ring.
24:27And any time I want an opinion, I'll ask Mick Foley because I respect his opinion.
24:31He's a great guy.
24:31I always thought that Mick Foley would come up with some of the greatest ideas while I was in the
24:37ring.
24:38Whether it was Dude Love, Mick Foley, Mankind, Cactus Jack.
24:41I mean, the thing about it was, it wasn't just that he was coming up with all these different things.
24:46There were boundaries between every single gimmick, and none of them bled over to the other.
24:50I mean, the work style would change.
24:52When it came time for the promos, separate cats.
24:55And that's what I always enjoyed about it.
24:57He just didn't go out there and say, hey, I'm going to whip your ass like I did.
25:01Mick Foley would go into the different layers and come back and make points.
25:05And a very complicated promo at times, but always an excellent promo.
25:09Being in the ring with him, fun.
25:11Mick Foley was one of those guys.
25:13And whether I was across the ring from him, working with him, or together in the same corner working with
25:18him,
25:18I had a lot of fun working with Mick Foley.
25:21Myself and Owen Hart in the ring was almost as good a chemistry combination as myself and Brett in the
25:27ring.
25:27The odds are that I can beat Stone Cold Steve Austin.
25:30I've beat him twice before.
25:32And with my Intercontinental title on the line, I can guarantee I can beat him again.
25:36I'll kiss his ass if I can't kick it, and that's the way it's going to be.
25:40You better pucker up, son, because at SummerSlam, you're going to kiss my ass.
25:45I remember rolling into Continental Airlines Arena.
25:47It was a sold out pay-per-view, 20,000 people.
25:49I was wrestling Owen Hart for the Intercontinental Championship.
25:53That Intercontinental belt meant so much to me because so many great, great wrestlers have had that.
25:59And many times, to me, in my opinion, and a lot of the other guys that I know of opinion,
26:04the IC belt to me sometimes means more than a world championship
26:07because these are the guys that are out there having the best match on the card.
26:11These are the guys that are getting ready for that world title.
26:15I remember we went into the pile driver deal.
26:18I picked him up, and then we reversed that.
26:21He picked me up.
26:22My head was about, I don't know, six, eight inches below the bottom of his legs,
26:25and we jumped up and spiked me on the top of my head.
26:28That's called an axial load.
26:30And I remember being in front of 20,000 people, and I remember just like a big gong went off.
26:35And I remember laying there in the middle of the ring, looking up at the lights,
26:38and I was thinking to myself, I'm the next Christopher Reeve.
26:42You know, I can't move.
26:44For about 90 seconds, I laid there, and I didn't think I was ever going to move again in my
26:47life.
26:50And then finally, I could start using my hands.
26:52And because the stipulation match was a kiss-your-ass match,
26:55the loser had to kiss the other guy's ass.
26:57So I'm thinking to myself, well, if I lose this, I'm going to have to kiss his ass.
27:00I've got to get out of this match.
27:02And so after a while, I couldn't use my hands yet,
27:05but I could turn over and I could use my forearms to crawl.
27:09It took me a long time to straighten my knees to be able to crawl.
27:21It took about three referees to pull me to my feet.
27:24I remember holding that belt up.
27:26It was like, you know, the lights were on, but nobody was home.
27:29And I just remember I had this intense burning in my interior delts.
27:33It was just like on fire, like someone rubbed icy hot on them.
27:38That would last for about two weeks.
27:40After about two weeks, that kind of turned into like a real dull itch.
27:44And then finally, it went away.
27:46But at that point, after the MRIs, x-rays and visiting about three or four doctors,
27:51you know, I was basically out of the ring for about three or four months.
27:55I believe I had to forfeit that title a month later because I couldn't defend it.
27:59I remember coming back, you know, from the neck injury, I started working again.
28:03It all ended up with me working with Shawn Michaels and WrestleMania 14.
28:07We would bring Mike Tyson in to be the special guest referee.
28:11And all the stuff that went on with Mike Tyson was so big.
28:15Whoa!
28:17Whoa!
28:18Here we go!
28:19Here we go!
28:19I said it Austin!
28:21I said it Austin!
28:22Oh, hell, I broke it!
28:23Look at us!
28:24It was a very special match for me being there and winning my first title.
28:28Austin is the champion!
28:29Stone Cold!
28:31Stone Cold!
28:32Stone Cold!
28:32Stone Cold!
28:34When you grow up watching professional wrestling like I did and you just absolutely love it
28:39and you love being on the road and love being in the ring for you to get your first championship,
28:44it's just a real, real big deal and an honor that a company is going to jump on your back
28:50and, you know, feed you carrots, but you're going to be the horse pulling that wagon.
28:54And I was very honored.
28:54Give it up, ladies and gentlemen, for this extraordinary attire, the new and improved Stone Cold Steve Austin.
29:02It only made sense for the evil Mr. McMahon to rear his ugly head and try to make me a
29:10corporate player.
29:11Well, that wasn't going to work.
29:12Stone Cold Steve Austin!
29:15Don't change for nobody!
29:16And that's the bottom line to Stone Cold Steve Austin!
29:22You always need to stack the odds against Stone Cold Steve Austin.
29:25It's been a conspiracy between Vince McMahon and Dude Love all along.
29:30What?
29:30And in that first encounter with Dude Love, of course, he was going to be in Dude Love's corner.
29:35I tell you what, Vince, you're going to raise a lot of eyebrows.
29:37You're going to sit at ringside during the title match with Austin and Dude Love.
29:41He's only done that one other time and that was at Survivor Series once someone else got screwed out of
29:45the title.
29:45Is Vince McMahon going to screw Austin out of the title this Sunday?
29:50If you screw Steve Austin, Vince, you're going to get your ass whipped in front of the world and that's
29:55all I've got to say.
29:58Once myself and Vince started feuding, we always had our hardcore wrestling fans.
30:04But this was a storyline which was so big, which crossed so many boundaries because the people always wanted to
30:09give their boss the what for
30:11and maybe punch them in the mouth or do whatever it takes to them.
30:16You've got to work within the system. That's all you've got to do.
30:20And here I was and I was not bowing down. I wasn't saying, OK, we'll do things your way.
30:26It was going to be my way. And I think it was in Madison Square Garden, if I'm not mistaken.
30:30The first night I give Vince the Stone Cold Stutter.
30:34You can kiss my ass.
30:37Woo! Oh, God!
30:44And no one had ever done anything like that to Vince McMahon.
30:48It was so big. It was so huge. Everybody knew about it.
30:51Austin is going directly to jail!
30:56The feud between me and Vince just was the thing that everybody had to watch on a weekly basis.
31:03Holy hell yeah!
31:06I couldn't wait to go to work on Monday because I knew that they were going to supply me with
31:10the greatest stuff to do with Vince,
31:12whether it was filling the Corvette full of semen.
31:14One of his selections has been destroyed by the Rattlesnake!
31:19No!
31:19Driving a beer truck in the ring and squirting everybody down with beer.
31:23Wait a minute! No!
31:25No cold! It's beer!
31:27No cold with a beer bath!
31:29Driving a Zamboni into the ring.
31:32Austin's on a Zamboni!
31:33Woo!
31:34Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!
31:36They gave me the greatest playground that anybody's ever gotten in their business.
31:39And I loved and enjoyed every minute of it and made the most out of anything they gave me.
31:44Ah!
31:45What?
31:45Ah!
31:50Kane challenges you, Austin, to a match.
31:53The winner will be the man who draws first blood.
31:59I remember that match.
32:00It was the main event.
32:02I'd been in a hospital for three days with a staph infection.
32:04And so I just basically come out of the hospital, rolled into this pay-per-view.
32:09Oh!
32:10What?
32:11What?
32:11What the hell is that?
32:12What is that?
32:13Austin is covered!
32:14What is that?
32:15This Sunday, the blood on you will be for real!
32:21He just said this Sunday, the blood on you will be for real!
32:26I've bled before.
32:27I ain't afraid to bleed again.
32:29Well, the interesting thing about Kane in the first blood match is he was wearing the mask,
32:34which is going to make it really hard for me to make him start bleeding.
32:38I'll accept any kind of match you want to throw a Stone Cold Steve Austin.
32:42A first blood match.
32:44It's really another case of that stacking the odds against me.
32:49Oh, what a happy day!
32:51We have a new champion!
32:54I give you the World Wrestling Federation champion!
32:58I give you Kane!
33:03It gives me a great deal of honor to place this championship belt around your waist voluntarily.
33:22You know, I know, the whole damn world knows that big son of a bitch never busted me open!
33:28We went into Monday Night Raw the next night.
33:30I decided that was going to be the perfect time to challenge Kane.
33:34The reason I'm out here is because I want a rematch with Kane right here tonight!
33:41I went down to the ring, threw down the challenge, and I've always said that Kane had guts enough,
33:47or was stupid enough, depending on where you're standing, to accept the match.
33:51Will you give me the rematch tonight?
34:07There ain't nobody else like him! Stone Cold Steve Austin, live and uncentered!
34:14Wherever there's a WWE ring, and wherever there's one of these WWE cameras,
34:20then that night, that's where Stone Cold Steve Austin is home.
34:23So that means a Stone Cold Steve Austin show!
34:27I was a bad son of a bitch! And I still am!
34:32I'll drink to that!
34:42I had a lot of fun battling the rock.
34:44Anytime I ever got in the ring with that guy, it was a deal where I brought out the best
34:47in him,
34:48and he brought out the best in me.
34:49And I remember in WrestleMania 15, I was going through some rough times myself,
34:53in my personal life, and the biggest match of the year,
34:56I forget my vest, at the house in San Antonio,
34:59I have to walk to the ring in a t-shirt,
35:01and that was one of the biggest things that upset me about that match.
35:04And then of course the backlash match,
35:06that followed that to me was a way better match,
35:09and a match that was more fun.
35:11You want this piece of trash you call a title?
35:14Stone Cold, you want the piece of trash?
35:16You come get the piece of trash!
35:19Anytime we got to do something together,
35:21I mean, Rock made the most of it,
35:22from him stealing my belt and throwing it in a river.
35:25I'll send you watch your belt, you take it to hell with you!
35:30And of course he's doing the eulogy for the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin.
35:35Purely Trailer Park Trash.
35:37The biggest piece of Trailer Park Trash that he'd ever laid his eyes on.
35:40We are gathered here tonight to celebrate the loss
35:43of the biggest foul-mouthed, beer-swilling, finger-gesturing piece of monkey crap
35:51that has ever graced God's green earth.
35:55Wait! There's Austin!
35:57What the hell is that?!
35:58My God, it's a monster truck!
35:59Of course I show up finding the Rocks Lincoln Continental in the car,
36:03which of course the company had bought that day off a lot for $30,000,
36:07and all of a sudden they've got a monster truck.
36:08For me to learn how to drive 15 minutes before we go to live TV,
36:12and all of a sudden I'm out there crushing his car.
36:14Oh my God!
36:17Oh my God!
36:18Austin destroyed the lost new Lincoln Continental
36:21with that monster truck!
36:23What a drive for the Rattlespace!
36:26Just classic, classic stuff that they always set me up with,
36:30and the crowd at that time was just absolutely loving every bit of it.
36:33Austin's throwing that monster truck!
36:35Right in here to the arena!
36:37Listen to the ovation!
36:38So when you put two cats like Stone Cold and Rock,
36:41you know, in a feud together, very, very entertaining.
36:44I remember going into the Survivor Series 1999,
36:47getting hit with a car to take me out of action for over a year
36:51because I was starting to really suffer the long-term effects
36:55of the pile driver for Moen Hart,
36:57and I had bone spurs going into my spinal cord.
37:01I had just a lot of other problems that I needed to have fixed.
37:04In a very successful operation,
37:06they drilled everything off my spinal cord.
37:08They fused the C3-4 level.
37:10I pretty well figured that, you know, after that surgery,
37:13if my career ended, I was going to be pretty much okay with it.
37:17I had a couple of really hot years, but then again, you know, like I said,
37:20things started healing up.
37:22I'm ready to get back in the ring.
37:24When you come back in the ring after being gone for a year,
37:27you wonder if you're going to be taken back by the fans.
37:30It takes a long time to really get in shape when you've been gone for so long.
37:34I remember when I got in the ring with Eddie Guerrero.
37:36I'm the one that requested that match
37:37because I'm such a big Eddie Guerrero fan.
37:42If you had to make me a list of my top ten best ever,
37:45Eddie Guerrero was going to be in that ring,
37:46and it was a lot of fun to be in there with Eddie.
37:49I regret that, of course, I wasn't at my best yet.
37:52Any time you get in the ring with Triple H, it's going to be a good day
37:55because he's another guy that if you go out in the ring with him,
37:58he's going to want to have the best match on the card.
38:00And like I said, he's an excellent ring general.
38:02Triple H, you win the grand prize because it's Survivor Series.
38:06You will take on Stone Cold Steve Austin.
38:12Like you always say, DTA Austin, don't trust anybody.
38:16Stone Cold Steve Austin.
38:20You never, never, never saw it coming.
38:23All the speculation.
38:24All the rumors.
38:25About who Rikishi's accomplice was.
38:28Who gained the most in Austin's absence?
38:32I did.
38:33I held the World Wrestling Federation Championship longer than anybody.
38:37I married the boss's daughter.
38:39I ran the World Wrestling Federation.
38:44Triple H, you took a year out of my life.
38:47So what I'm going to do is put on a pair of black boots,
38:50a pair of black trunks right here in this ring.
38:54I'm going to beat your ass.
38:55Austin, if a man has done the things that I have done,
39:00what will I do to win this game?
39:05Austin, game over.
39:07I've always enjoyed working with Triple H,
39:10but I don't think I was quite hitting on all cylinders in that match.
39:15Austin to the forklift!
39:17Austin's driving the forklift!
39:18Austin, you're going to regret this!
39:20Austin, you're going to regret!
39:22Austin, don't!
39:23Oh my God!
39:24Austin, don't!
39:25Don't!
39:25Don't!
39:29We shall sign a contract that will bind Triple H
39:33and Stone Cold Steve Austin
39:35to a matchup to take place at No Way Out.
39:38It was a funny thing rolling into Las Vegas
39:41because there's going to be three different falls in one match.
39:43It's going to be basically the first fall was a regular wrestling match.
39:46The second fall was a street fight,
39:48which pretty much anything goes.
39:50And then the last, after the brutality of the street fight,
39:53a cage was going to drop and we're going to have a cage match.
39:55So that's a lot of matches and a lot of time.
39:58And with the intensity that I always worked with,
40:00I mean, I knew I was going to be tired going into that thing.
40:03A very entertaining match and that would go down as one of my favorite matches
40:06and my career in WWE.
40:09My favorite match with The Rock, period, on the road or on pay-per-view,
40:14Monday Night Raw, whatever, was WrestleMania 17 in Houston.
40:17I was starting to feel a little flat or a little bit stale.
40:20The build-up of that match was one of my favorite build-ups my whole career.
40:23I needed that match.
40:25Personally, I was just kind of starting to flatline a little bit.
40:34Hey, wait!
40:35Oh, the stutter!
40:37That match was so important and the build was so good
40:39that it really resurrected me and got me as hot as I ever was.
40:43Your bald-headed, double-studded candy ass belongs to The Rock.
40:49The Rock was starting to get really, really hot.
40:51Wait a minute! The Rock just gave the Stone Cold Stutter!
40:54The Stone Cold Steve Austin!
40:55When we rolled into Houston, overwhelmingly, I was the favorite in that match, hands down.
41:02How personal can this get?
41:04One of my most exciting matches I've ever been in.
41:06The way that Rock and myself always worked with each other in the ring.
41:10Just unbelievable chemistry.
41:13Can you imagine what it's gonna be like at WrestleMania?
41:16If me and Vince ever talk about this, I told him I would have called an audible in the ring,
41:21knowing what I know now because people did not want to hate me.
41:24I didn't really have anybody to work with, with Rock going on to do a movie,
41:27with Triple H being injured, and the fact that people didn't want to hate me,
41:30I would have looked at Vince and I would have told him, you know, stun her,
41:34and I'd have kicked him in the gut and I'd have dropped him.
41:38I had so much fun to get a chance to be able to do the job that I dreamed about
41:41as a kid
41:42and taken the world of sports entertainment to the highest level it's ever been taken.
41:47I just want to say to the fans, you know, thank you very much for always supporting me.
41:55When you start off in Dallas, Texas, and you make $40 for your first televised match,
42:00and then you make $20 a night for the next two years, and you starve,
42:04and you don't know how you're gonna make the next week,
42:08or your car almost gets repossessed eating raw potatoes and tuna fish.
42:12Never knew what it was gonna turn to and never had any plans,
42:16and it was all a work in progress.
42:21When I look back, I just have a bunch of really, really great memories of the best job in the
42:27world.
42:28I've always thought that as many people that allowed me to come to their home on a TV set,
42:32or went to an arena, or bought a pay-per-view,
42:35the people that I was able to go out there and entertain,
42:38to me, it was all given right back to me.
42:42I've always told everybody that it wasn't a me thing or a them thing,
42:46it was a we thing, and the success of Stone Cold,
42:50because it was the WWE providing all the great toys,
42:53it was me supplying myself.
42:56Pretty much a match made in heaven, really.
43:00It was a very satisfying time,
43:02and I'm just happy that I was able to stick around as long as I did.
43:06The business has done a lot for me.
43:08I'm extremely lucky that I decided to be in this business,
43:12and very happy that I fell in love with it in a small town in South Texas.
43:18I'm so excited.
43:19And, at the end of the day,
43:36It's just a pretty good guy.
43:37and I don't wanna try to find it.
43:37I'm happy to get better than I'm happy with you.