Ken Shamrock On Working With The Rock, Refereeing Austin-Hart "I Quit" Match At WM13

UFC Hall Of Famer and former WWE Superstar Ken Shamrock recently spoke with our friends at Wrestling Inc to talk about his time in WWE in the 1990s. Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On coming in to WWE to serve as the special guest referee for the famous "I Quit" match between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Bret "The Hitman" Hart at WrestleMania 13: "I think that without a shadow of a doubt that the match changed wrestling. It really launched us into the Attitude Era. I know that when they first pitched the idea of the match I was a little bit skeptical about being a referee because I was afraid that I was going to be in the ring with guys that weren't really going to hit each other. You were going to have space in between when they threw a punch, and I was just not that person. I didn't know how I was going to deal with that. I said, you know what, these guys are going to do a good job and it wasn't going to be something I was going to be embarrassed about, so when the match started, those guys went after one another. It was like watching an MMA match. They put on a great match and those guys went after one another. It is a match that I think anybody that watches it and sees it sees that those guys did a tremendous job and they changed the way that pro wrestling was going and turned it into one of those great times in pro wrestling, which was the Attitude Era. I mean, me being in there as an MMA fighter, and the reputation that I was carrying and those guys putting on one of the greatest matches I have ever seen and me being a part of that and suplexing them into the end, and tying it into that no holds barred era in with that match really changed pro wrestling. That was when we launched the Attitude Era."

On working with The Rock early in his WWE career: "The Rock, I really enjoyed my time that we had with our little angle. I remembered doing house shows. I remembered doing pay per views with him. It seemed like we were really getting things going. I even took a chair shot to the face, which has never been done until Mick Foley took it to the face three times. I always thought The Rock and in our direction it was a really good time for pro wrestling. It was the Attitude Era. Guys were really having pride in their aggressiveness, and when The Rock moved up to take the world title, I thought for sure that I was going to move up and we would have the match for the world title, but it never came about for whatever reason, but man, it would be great to finish that because it was kind of left open. It was never finished. So, it would be great to go out and have that opportunity and close that door."

Check out more from the interview with UFC Hall Of Famer and former WWE Superstar Ken Shamrock at WrestlingInc.com.