Steve Austin On Ring Rats, Which Wrestling Legend Came Up With "Stunning" Moniker, WCW Firing
Recently, professional wrestling legend Steve Austin appeared on Paul Mercurio's 2 Chairs And A Microphone podcast. During the interview, Austin talked about the evolution of his professional wrestling personas, how being fired from WCW was the best thing that ever happened to him, and life on the road as a professional wrestler.
According to Austin, Dutch Mantel came up with his 'Austin' surname as well as his 'Stunning' nickname. Austin claimed he started out as a drastically different character from the 'Stone Cold' persona for which he became most famous.
"My progression was a guy in long tights with long blonde hair, clean-shaven face, an okay looking guy. And that would evolve into the black trunks and the leg braces because of the knee injuries, the bald head and the goatee, a total ass kicker, so I morphed through my stages until I ended up with the winning thing."
The former 'Superstar' Steve Austin claimed to have no animosity towards Eric Bischoff, who fired Austin from WCW in 1995 while Austin was recovering from an injury sustained during an overseas tour.
"Do I hold any animosity towards Bischoff or anything like that? Getting fired was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, but Paul E. helped me harness all that energy and my competitive drive as an athlete and a performer and just focused all of that into one promo."
When asked about life on the road as a professional wrestler as it relates to meeting women, Austin admitted that he was surprised to see the hangers on at the outset of his career.
"Starting out on the road, I'm hanging out with guys who have been in the business 10, 15 years and we make our first stop, and, all of a sudden, all these women show up that are following the wrestling show from town to town or different towns have their different ones. I was like, 'what in the hell is going on?' because I was always in a relationship with my girlfriend or whatever. This was totally new to me and it wasn't like I had a tremendous game either. I mean, I just always did my deal and did good, but it wasn't like I had to go out there and be Laurence Olivier, dropping some smooth rap on somebody. But we get on the road and all that stuff happens. The higher up you are on that card, the stakes increase. The quality gets better."
To listen to the podcast, click here. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit 2 Chairs And A Microphone with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: 2 Chairs And A Microphone