During his recent chat with Fightful, former ESPN and WWE personality Jonathan Coachman reflected on Taboo Tuesday 2005, where the longtime announcer nearly stepped into the ring with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
In the weeks leading up to Taboo Tuesday, WWE advertised a match between Coachman and “The Texas Rattlesnake.” Austin would be pulled from the contest, and replaced by Batista, who defeated Coachman in quick fashion.
When sharing his recollection of everything that lead to the decision, Coach told the site:
“I’ll start this by saying I love Stone Cold Steve Austin. The last couple years we connected a couple times, and I have a lot of respect for what he’s done and what he meant to the business. That was not one of his best moments. He felt like it was below him to step into the ring with me. Even though the storyline was pretty good and at the time I was a heel that was getting quite a bit of heat in the arenas. It wouldn’t have been much more than talking a little trash, you know, Stone Cold Stunner and then I’d wear a dress, but he didn’t even show up. He didn’t show up. That’s the truth. He felt like it was below him, he didn’t show up, but it wasn’t the only time that he did that. The only thing — I’m not even bitter to this day about it. I wish I would have got the check. Because I didn’t get the check. When you wrestled Stone Cold you got paid more. But I have no ill will towards him at all because he had a long career, he had a lot of things going on, he was a big star, and I certainly wasn’t in his world. But that particular time, I wouldn’t say it was his best moment.“
