WWE published the second part of their interview with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin about WWE ’13. Here are some highlights.
Working with Bret Hart: Man, working with Bret Hart was some of the most fun matches I’ve ever had in my life. There was Chicago and WrestleMania 13, over in South Africa, in Germany — and Bret had a pretty good stronghold over in Germany.
Man, I loved working with Bret. I’ve got a lot of respect for Bret as a person, and everything he did as a pro wrestler. Hell, I remember one time we were working a show somewhere and Bret was in the main event. [Bret] got a flat tire on his Lincoln Towncar, and I changed his tire while he was in the ring working.
Every day you work with Bret, you could learn something. We had 100 percent trust in each other, and 100 percent respect for each other. He’s a badass guy, and I just — every night was a good night with Hart. That’s the damn truth.
How John Cena would have fared in the Attitude Era: “Yeah, had he been placed in it, and been dealt with accordingly, the John Cena you see now — the face of the franchise, the leader of the pack? Not so much,” Austin admitted. “But I guarantee if you’d have gotten him face to face with ‘Stone Cold’ in an interview, and you know John cuts a good interview himself, if I slapped the s*** out of that son of a b****, I think we’re off and running to make a lot of money.
“All he needs is to be poked and prodded in the right way. I think John Cena has a hell of a lot of fire and he needs to be in the ring with the right opponent, or the right cat, to bring that out. So in the current environment, you really don’t see that in him. Place [Cena] back 10 years in the ring with ‘Stone Cold’? You’d have rung the cash register, big time.”
Paul Heyman’s promos: “I always give credit to Paul for helping me to understand what a promo was,” Austin said. “And giving me a chance to cut them and giving me the confidence and the platform to cut promos. Man, if it hadn’t been for Paul Heyman offering me a job in ECW, I don’t know if “Stone Cold” would have ever been.”
