Steve Austin On Which WWE Belt He Keeps, Intercontinental Title Being The Title For Workhorses
As noted, on episode 366 of The Steve Austin Show, WWE Hall Of Famer Steve Austin conducted a question and answer session with fans. Among other things, Austin discussed whether he would ever consider selling the WWE Intercontinental Championship he owns that was held by some of the genre's all-time greats. The two-time WWE Intercontinental Champion professed that he always thought of the Intercontinental Championship as the title for workhorses and a training championship for future World title holders.
"I've always considered the Intercontinental Championship belt to be really as important as the World Championship belt. You always want to be the World Championship, but, back in the day, the IC belt was typically the guy who could work his ass off. And it was also kind of a training belt for the World Championship belt. Sometimes guys get World belts and never get an IC belt and vice versa, but there was really a whole lot of pride that came out of the guys that carried this particular belt."
Apparently, Austin kept the Intercontinental Championship he won at SummerSlam (1997) when he defeated Owen Hart for the title. According to Austin, this is the same belt held by professional wrestling legends such as The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, and Curt Hennig. Likely, the title was the same carried by greats including Owen Hart, Triple H [as Hunter Hearst Helmsley], Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash [as Diesel], Scott Hall [as Razor Ramon], The Rock [as Rocky Maivia], and others.
"I have the Intercontinental Championship that I think Warrior had this belt; Savage had this belt; Curt Hennig probably had this belt. f–k, who else had this belt? I can't even name all the people that had this belt, but this was the belt that everybody had before they started making all the different ones. Man, I wouldn't take anything in the world for this belt because it just means that much to me."
Austin divulged that he told McMahon himself that he wanted to keep the belt he won at SummerSlam. Also, the former 'Ringmaster' elaborated on why that particular title means so much to him.
"It [has] got so many memories. It means that much to me. Getting dropped on my head and almost getting paralyzed over it. The fact that I was able to get up from that and come back and finish my career as a professional wrestler. And I'll never forget that moment. The belt means a lot to me. I told Vince, I told him, I said, 'hey, man,' I said, 'I want to keep this belt.' He goes, 'you get another one made,' [and Austin replied] 'but this one is mine' and Vince was cool with it and I'll never sell that belt. Whenever I die, that'll still be mine. I will have put in my will whoever I'm going to give it to, but it is an important belt. It's a very historical belt in the sense of who had it. I wish I had a list of all the guys who actually held this belt in their run and now I have it in my safe. It's just a very special belt."
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Source: The Steve Austin Show