Submitted by J Bratcher on January 23, 2004 at 12:10 AM

Thanks to reader John-Miguel Da Costa for sending the following recap of Stone Cold Steve Austin on Sky Sports News:

22nd January, 2004

London, England

I rushed home from a job meeting in central London to catch Austin on Sky Sports News. He was billed as ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’ – The Texas Rattlesnake. I saw most of his interview, which was as follows:

He was asked about the neck injury he suffered at SummerSlam 1997 Steve spoke of how he was rendered a quadriplegic for a few minutes. He said he lay in the ring unable to move anything, and told the referee ‘don’t let Owen touch me because I can’t move a damn thing’.

He said he regained feeling in his body and managed to finish the match. They asked if he was scared, Austin said he was terrified and all he could think about was Christopher Reeve’s accident.

Once he could move all he wanted to do was end the match properly as it was live on pay per view in front of 20,000 people. He ended up with a bruised spinal cord and vertebrae damage, which required the fusing of two vertebrae.

They talked about his character and his current role on TV. Austin said he is very much like his on screen character in real life and loves to drink beer and raise hell.

They showed footage from Raw of Austin doing doughnuts on the Quad bike and Austin said it reminds him of all the roundabouts we have in England. They showed him chasing Teddy Long round the ring; Steve said he had some trouble and ended up clipping the ring but just put it back in gear and carried on raising hell.

He said at the moment he has come back from a storyline where he had to ‘leave’ the WWE and mentioned the rule of him having to be provoked to Stun someone. Now he’s sort of CO-GM of Raw with Bischoff (didn’t mention the Sheriff name!) and just makes up rules that he sees fit.

They asked about finishers. Steve said a wrestler’s finishing move is very important, and often wrestlers watch tapes from Japan or some high-flying stuff to come up with an original move that makes the crowd go crazy when its executed.

He mentioned that he used to use a modified sleeper hold (The Million-Dollar Dream) but then started using the Stone Cold Stunner.

They asked Steve how he came up with the Stunner. He said it was Michael Hayes who suggested the move and Austin modified it with the kick to the gut. They showed a slow motion replay of the Stunner on Mark Henry from Raw, and Austin talked them through it saying he slams the chin on his shoulder and the Stunner can knock down a 380lb man who is one of the strongest guys in the world!

Then he answered some email questions. Apparently the Sky computer system was flooded with emails and there were around 150 claiming to be his No.1 fan! The questions were as follows:

Who do you think will win the Royal Rumble?

Steve said he was thinking about it today and he is leaning towards Goldberg, but it could well be either Angle or Benoit. He went on to say that the Rumble is all about pacing yourself especially if you’re first in the ring and if you need a rest just hang on to the ropes so nobody can get you out. He said he used this tactic last time he was in the rumble and ended up winning (2001).

Are the storylines all scripted or is there freedom to improvise?

Austin said most of the storylines and promos nowadays are heavily scripted which he doesn’t like. He said when he was feuding with Vince McMahon in 1999 they would go to the ring with a rough idea then just improvise and feed off the crowd’s reaction to tell the story. He said he knows there needs to be a skeleton story but feels that wrestlers should do the rest by really working the crowd and ad-lib according to their reaction.

How did you come up with the infamous King Of The Ring 1996 promo?

The rattlesnake said it happened by pure luck. He beat Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts in the final, then was taken to hospital to have 14 stitches in his upper lip area. He returned to the arena to cut an acceptance speech promo. He said Jake would often use bible references in his promos and it dawned on him that it would be a great way to rub in the victory if he used the bible stuff against him. He said he made it up on the spot and said ‘Austin 3:16 just whooped your ass, and that’s the bottom line ‘cause Stone Cold says so!’ He said it caught on with the crowd immediately and became one of the most popular catchphrases in the business.

Who was your toughest opponent?

Mick Foley was probably his toughest opponent, he was willing to take all kinds of crazy bumps to entertain the fans. The presenter mentioned Kurt Angle and Steve said he has a little story. He explained ‘blowing up’ where a wrestlers is completely out of breath and can’t get oxygen in quick enough. He said a funny moment of his career was when feuding with Kurt Angle in one of their first matches, Kurt blew up and went purple. Austin was laying into him on the floor and he thought we’ve got an Olympic gold medallist in the ring and here I am, a beer-swilling redneck giving Angle an ass-whooping!

How does it feel to open up a can of Whoopass on the rock?

It feels great, he said he loved opening up a can of Whoopass on the Rock because he is a special guy and an amazing entertainer. He said they had an excellent camaraderie going on, and their matches made them both look great and were some of the greatest confrontations in the history of wrestling. He also said they were very good friends.

Who is your best friend in the business?

He said his true best friend was Brian Pillman, who has passed away. They met when Austin was working for WCW as Stunning Steve Austin. He mentioned Rock again as being a real good friend in the business.

How do you get your head so shiny? My dad is bald and it is not nearly as shiny as yours is. (Marksville!)

SCSA said that he actually used to have long blond hair like the presenter when he was in WCW, but then his hairline started receding and he got some fancy haircut to hide it but it looked awful! So he came to WWE and took somebody’s advice (Chris?) to shave his head bald. Onto the question he said he just shaves against the grain and does it frequently, but you could use some turtle wax or automobile polish!

Stone Cold picked up a toy of himself and said this is what happens if he stays out in the sun too long. The presenter knocked the toy over and mumbled that he was gonna say that he could knock Austin down. They thanked Austin for coming in and closed the segment.

Overall a fairly decent interview which covered a lot of topics but not much we don't know already. The questions were a little markish but Austin answered well. The presenters had done some research so that it wasn’t the usual Wrestling is fake bullshit. Austin came across really well and made some great jokes, definitely did a great job of representing WWE.

He’ll be on TRL tomorrow, and then he’s signing his book at Virgin Piccadilly on Friday night. The 500 tickets for the signing are gone, I found out too late. Hopefully I’ll meet Austin as part of my ringside WMXX package!

Austin's Swerve for Bischoff @ Royal Rumble + HBK/Triple H Clash Update!