Original subtitles

\h\h\h- We cool? Okay, good, next.

- Who is Steve Austin the man,

\h\hand who is "Stone Cold" Steve Austin the performer?

- The difference between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

\hthe man and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin the performer

\h\his basically "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is exactly that.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t even know what the difference is really.

[stirring orchestral music]

♪ ♪

- Steve Austin is one of \hthe biggest superstars

\h\h\h\h\h\hin the history of the wrestling business

because of his passion for it.

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

He had this meteoric rise

that burned hot and fast

\h\h\h\hand changed an entire industry.

- Talk about your Psalms; \h\htalk about John 3:16.

Austin 3:16 says, "I just whipped your ass!"

[cheers and applause]

Really this--the separation \h\h\h\hbetween "Stone Cold"

and Steve Austin

\h\h\h\h\h\h\his only a matter of the surrounding that I’m in.

♪ ♪

\h- The character was a real person.

- The look in his eyes \h\htold a real story,

and you know why?

Because it was a real story.

\h- He went from being a guy from Texas to a pro wrestler

to a pop-culture icon.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- He was the defining character

of a generation,

\h\hthe disrupter of the status quo,

the pivotal player

in the complete reimagination \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof the industry.

- I’ve been retired \h\h\hfor so long,

I don’t miss it anymore.

\h\h\h\hI don’t crave it. You can never replace it.

I’m not trying to say \h\h\h\hthat you can,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbut I wouldn’t say there’s anything about the life

I used to live on the road

that makes me yearn to go back in time and relive those days.

\hBut I do what I want when I want right here

\h\h\hin this damn ring, and can’t nobody stop me.

The whole world knows my name is "Stone Cold" Steve Austin,

and if I go straight to hell,

you’re damn sure coming with me.

♪ ♪

- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin,

\h\hhis reign on top was second to none.

- Steve Austin changed the way \h\h\h\h\hthe game was played.

There will never ever be \h\h\h\hanyone like him.

- He’s the man responsible \h\h\h\h\h\hfor making WWE

more than we thought \hit could ever be.

- People gravitated a lot to the energy

that I brought to the business.

- No!

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h- Steve didn’t have a long career being on top,

\h\h\h\h\hbut he had that one little peak

that was like, wow, no one \hwill come close to that.

\h\h- "Stone Cold" is a showbiz guy.

Steve Austin is a regular guy.

\h\h\h\hThey just happen to be rolled up in the same package.

♪ ♪

[soft acoustic music]

♪ ♪

\hI was born in Austin, Texas, but we didn’t stay there long.

I grew up in a little town \h\h\h\h\h\h\hcalled Edna.

♪ ♪

\hAnd I’m proud to be from Texas, you know,

born, bred, raised.

You know, it’s tough.

It’s cowboy country, \h\hand it’s rugged.

\h\h\h\hI think the reputation of Texas kind of proceeds you

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand the fact that you’re from that state.

- You know, it’s not a one-stoplight town,

but we just have a few stoplights,

\h\hand it’s a town where everybody knows everybody.

We had a huge house, \hour yellow house.

It was on 1/2 of an acre.

It was great growing up \h\h\hin a big family.

♪ ♪

\h\hScott’s the oldest, then Steve, then Kevin,

Jeff, and then me.

♪ ♪

As a kid, Steve was very shy.

\h\h\h\h\h\h[chuckles] Yeah, yeah, he was shy.

\h- I was just shy enough that when we called down

to Dairy Queen to order,

\h\h\h\hyou know, three tacos or whatever, you know, hell,

I put my sister on the phone.

"Jenny, can you order \h\hmy food for me?"

[light music]

- So he’s seven years \h\h\h\holder than me,

\h\hand he would literally call me into the kitchen,

and he’d hand me the phone \h\h\h\h\h\hto Dairy Queen

and have me read off \h\h\h\h\hhis order.

- I broke out of that shyness \h\h\h\hwhen I found football

in junior high.

\h\h\h\h\h\hI used athletics to help me find confidence.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- I noticed him when he was in junior high.

I was the high school coach.

He was a physical specimen \h\hI guess you would say.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h- We started seventh grade football.

As long as I could remember, \hthat’s all he wanted to do

\hwas workout, eat right, and just build his body.

- We’re eating Little Debbies \h\hand Cap’n Crunch cereal,

and he’s over there \hwith the blender

\h\hwith this protein stuff and putting raw eggs in it,

and I’m thinking, "What? \h\h\h\h\hWho does this?"

You know? He does.

♪ ♪

- I was a running back, and I wasn’t very fast,

\h\hbut I weighed about 205 pounds,

and my line averaged \habout 165 pounds,

\h\h\h\hso I didn’t have a whole lot of blocking,

\hand I ran north and south, because I wasn’t fast enough

\hto run east and west, and I ran over people.

[stirring orchestral music]

\h- Straight A student, National Honor Society,

Steve never drank beer \h\h\h\hor raised hell

during high school like I did.

So every weekend,

all my buddies would come over.

We’re sitting on the back patio \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdrinking beer,

\h\h\hraising hell, having a good time,

and Steve would open up \h\hhis bedroom window,

"Y’all shut the hell up. \h\hI’m trying to sleep."

♪ ♪

\h\h- He was popular, but he just had such bigger dreams

and goals for himself.

\h\h\h- He used to actually practice signing autographs

\h\h\h\hback in the day. We’d be in the kitchen.

\h\h\h\hHe’d be writing his name different ways

\htrying to check out which would fit best.

\hHe’d ask my opinion. I was like, "What the?

\h\h\h\hWhat are you talking about, man?"

\h\h- At first, you know, I want to be a rock star,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbut I can’t sing, play any musical instruments,

so that’s out the door.

- Channel 39 presents \h"Houston Wrestling."

\h\h\h\h\h- One day, my mom was her chair

\h\h\h\hreading her "Redbook" magazine,

and I was flipping channels,

and I came across \hpro wrestling.

It was "Houston Wrestling."

For some reason the lighting, \h\h\hthe smoke-filled arena,

the rope banister \haround the ring,

\hone of the guys was just bleeding

like a stuck pig in the ring, and it just resonated with me.

I was like, "Holy cow."

\hI fell in love with it that day.

- Growing up, we only got \h\hthree channels here,

and "Houston Wrestling" \hwas on every Sunday.

And Steve always watched it.

\hIf I wanted to watch anything else, he said,

\h\h\h"Man, you can have the TV after wrestling is over with."

- And apparently, yeah, he told I guess friends and my brothers

that he was gonna be \ha wrestler one day.

He said those words.

- Well, I’ll be doggone.

[bell dings]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- You know, coming from a small town,

you don’t really get noticed.

\hYou have to put in a whole lot of work,

and you’ve got to kind of \hget yourself out there,

and he was able to do it.

[electronic music]

- Coming out of high school,

I went to Wharton County \h\h\h\hJunior College,

and they offered me \h\h\h\ha full ride

\h\hto North Texas State University...

♪ ♪

And football at that level \h\h\h\hwas more serious.

- This is the young man \h\h\h\hwe talked about.

- That was a real good play. \h\h- He’s from Edna, Texas?

- Yes, real good play \h\h\h\h\h\hby Steve.

\h\hHe’s played very well, gotten better every game.

- I really didn’t enjoy \h\hthe process anymore.

As far as the education \h\h\h\h\hprocess goes,

I had had an absolute gut full \h\hof doing research papers.

Algebra 2 and calculus \hwere kicking my ass.

It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I was through with college,

and I wanted to drop out, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hso I did.

\h\hWell, we had a connection from the athletic department

\h\h\h\hat North Texas to Watkins Motor Lines.

With 17 hours to go, \h\h\h\hI just said,

"Man, I’m out of here.

\h"Let me go work on a freight dock

and make that 400 bucks \h\h\h\h\h\h\ha week."

I love driving the forklift.

I could pull your tooth \h\h\hwith a forklift.

At Watkins Motor Lines,

\h\h\hwe were 30 miles from the Sportatorium in Dallas.

So, man, me and my buddies \h\hwould ride down there,

and we would drink beer \h\h\h\hand throw stuff

at the wrestlers \hand raise hell.

[indistinct chatter]

Man, Sportatorium

was the greatest building \h\h\h\h\h\hin the world,

atmosphere personified.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd then I’ll never forget, man,

\h\h\h\hwe were out there, and me and my buddy Rob--

he’s giving me the elbow.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe goes, "Man, you’re as big as him."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe goes, "You got to get in this.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMan, you ought to be a wrestler."

I said, "I’ma do it. \h\h\h\h\hI’ma do it.

\h\h\h\hI’ma do it," and so I’d wanted to

\hfor a long time, and I’ll be damned

if I didn’t go home, man. \h\ha couple days later,

and I was changing channels, and there was that commercial

\h\hthat Chris Adams put on for his wrestling academy,

and I said, "That’s it. \h\hThat’s my way in."

- Hello, everybody.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThis is "Gentleman" Chris Adams here

bringing you excited news

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\habout our May three-day pro-wrestling camp.

You’ll spent three full days working out in the same ring

that you see on your TV

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhere at the world-famous Sportatorium.

\h- The one thing that surprised me

when I showed up \hthat first day,

\h\hI just thought there was gonna be

a bunch of monsters in there

\h\hthat looked like me, just killers that wanted

to get in the business \h\h\hof pro wrestling,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbut there were just regular people off the street.

- I don’t know if I met Steve \h\h\has much as I saw Steve.

I was injured during a match,

so I went up in what’s known \h\h\h\h\has the crow’s nest

where family and friends could watch the matches,

and that happened to be \h\h\hthe first lesson

that "Gentleman" Chris Adams

\h\h\h\h\hwas giving for his new wrestling school,

and me and a couple of guys \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwere laughing

\h\h\h\h\h\habout how bad all of the trainees were,

all of them except this one guy \h\h\h\h\hwith long blond hair

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand a definite, you know, gift of athleticism,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand it was clear that he had it, whatever it is.

He had it right away.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah! - Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Hey! Hey!

\h\h\h\h- By the time he started wrestling,

it was mid to late 1989.

Austin started wrestling \h\h\h\h\h\hfor the USWA,

which was the United States \h\hWrestling Association.

\h\hSo he was wrestling in Memphis and in Texas

and all points in between that the USWA was running.

\h\h- I rolled into Nashville, and I needed a place to live.

I didn’t know where to go, and they said, "Hey, man,

you know, try the Congress Inn \h\h\h\hout on Dickerson Pike."

♪ ♪

So I rolled in there \h\hand checked in,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand, man, I didn’t have no money.

So every week or whenever \h\h\hI had enough money,

I would pay my rent.

♪ ♪

Times were really, \h\h\hreally lean,

and I didn’t have a hot plate, \h\hI didn’t have a microwave,

and I remember I went to the grocery store.

I bought some tuna fish cans, \h\h\hI bought some potatoes,

and for breakfast, lunch, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand dinner

I’d eat tuna fish and potato,

\hand after a few days I ran out of tuna fish,

so for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

I’d peel a raw potato \h\h\h\hand eat that.

A lot of guys ended up \hliving with dancers.

\hYeah, a lot of guys knew where all the buffets were,

all the--you know, any kind of \h\h\h\hall-you-can-eat thing,

they knew where they were.

- You had to figure out a way \h\h\h\hto survive back then.

\hThere was a time period there where I actually--

I spent nights in my car.

And I think I’d made \h$11,000 in a year

and put 10,000 miles on my car.

- You were barely getting by,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand so you’re paying your dues,

traveling 400 miles \h\h\hto make $10.

- And I’m making $15 to $20 a, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, night,

making 400-mile round trips. \h\hYou can’t afford to eat.

I remember calling my mom \h\h\h\hor she called me

and asked me how I was doing, \h\h\h\h\hand I said, "Mom,"

I said, "Is there any way for my birthday this year

you could just send me \h\h\h\h\h\h40 bucks?"

And it’s the only time I ever \hasked my parents for money,

\h\hand sure enough, a couple days later,

my mom sent me two $20 bills, and it meant the world to me

\h\h\h\hbecause I could afford to get something to eat again.

That’s part of paying \h\h\h\h\hyour dues,

and I just figured, you know--you know,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstarving or doing whatever it takes,

because I didn’t have a plan B.

I wanted to be a pro wrestler,

and so if this is what it takes \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto be one,

this is what I’m gonna do.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- I showed up to my first match in Memphis,

and Dutch Mantel \hwas the booker.

I go introduce myself \h\hto Dutch Mantell.

I said, "Hey, man, I’m Steve Williams.

I’m here to wrestle."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe goes, "Your name is Steve Williams?"

\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd he goes, "You can’t be that here."

\h\hHe goes, "There’s already a ’Dr. Death’ Steve Williams.

It would be confusing \h\h\h\hon the card."

\h\h\hAnd he goes, "You got 15 minutes

to come up with a name," \h\h\hand he walks away,

\h\h\h\hand I’m just two months in the business, new territory,

don’t know anybody,

\hand don’t know what the F to do.

The match is about to start, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand, you know,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI’m making a life-changing decision,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand he goes, "What’d you come up with?"

I said, "I ain’t got nothing." He goes, "You’re Steve Austin,"

and I started calling myself \h\h"Stunning" Steve Austin,

and I had a red robe with sequins on it.

[people shouting]

[dramatic music]

All I did was wrestle, \h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

go to the gym in the morning, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hget in the car,

go wrestle somewhere, \h\h\hand drive back.

That was life.

I was a sponge,

and I was absorbing all this information

\h\h\h\hfrom these great minds who would teach me information

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat they got from generations before them.

- I’ve been very impressed by Steve Austin’s ability,

\h\hhow far he’s come in such a short time.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe’s showing that he has the potential

to go a long, long way.

He will be a superstar

\h\h\h\hif he gets with the right kind of people

and just sits back, listens, and learns.

- Yes, sir!

You’re watching matches,

and you listen to the crowd \h\hand put the two together

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand let’s watch what they’re doing and listen

to the soundtrack.

\hOh, that works. That doesn’t work.

♪ ♪

Oh, yeah!

One, two, three, baby!

- A place like USWA \h\h\hat that point,

it gave those wrestlers \h\h\h\h\han opportunity

where even they were only making 10, 20,

\h30 bucks a night, the payoff was maybe someone from the WWE

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor World Championship Wrestling

at the time might see me,

and they’ll bring me up \h\h\h\h\h\hand kind of

they’ll be my guardian angel,

\hand suddenly I’ll be making way more money.

- Well, I think "Stunning" \hSteve Austin definitely

\h\h\hhas a fantastic future ahead of him in this sport.

[cheers and applause]

[tense music]

\h\h\h- At that time I was on the booking committee at WCW,

\h\h\h\h\hwhich is World Championship Wrestling.

We were all challenged \h\h\h\h\hand compelled

to try to find some new faces, some new young athletic talents

that we could build that had potential.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWell, gosh, he checked all those boxes.

\h\h\h\h\h- Back in the day the standard deal for WCW--

and this is crazy--

\hyou made 75 grand, you know, guaranteed.

You go from getting anywhere \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfrom 20 to 60

or 100 bucks a night

to 75,000 a year.

It was like the motherlode.

You know, and again, \h\hthis is ’92, ’93.

That’s a lot of money,

\h\h\hespecially coming from where I came from.

- WCW was a little \hdifferent level,

bigger television \h\hopportunities,

\h\h\h\hbigger chance for national exposure.

- Welcome back to World Championship Wrestling,

and I’m Missy Hyatt,

and now I would like \h\h\h\hto introduce

"Stunning" Steve Austin and Vivacious Veronica.

\h\h\h\h\h- WCW, I think it’s my first appearance in a ring,

\hand Missy Hyatt’s gonna interview me,

and I’m walking down \h\h\h\h\hthe aisle,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I’m just-- I’m in another world, right?

And I hear the announcer \hover the crowd going,

"And from Hollywood, \h\h\hCalifornia..."

\h\h\hSo I’m like, "Man, who the [...]

is that guy talking about?"

\hI’m walking to the ring, "’Stunning’ Steve Austin."

\h\h\h\h\hI was like, "When did my Texas ass with this accent,

\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, become from Hollywood, California?"

- I would just like \h\hto take this time

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto welcome you to World Championship Wrestling.

\h- So I get out there and climb in the ring,

and I’m doing this interview \h\h\h\h\h\hwith Missy Hyatt,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand, of course, I’ve got the biggest booger

\h\h\h\h\h\hyou could have hanging out of your nose,

and I was like, "Really?"

\h\hIt wasn’t--it wasn’t a great first appearance.

- "Stunning" Steve Austin!

\h\h\h- Steve always had great natural intensity.

It wasn’t prefabricated.

It wasn’t manufactured.

It was real.

\h\h- You can see that he could tap

into his athletic background

to bring a reality

in the fight that very few \hother people could match.

- Oh, did you see that?

\h\h\h\h- He had a solid run throughout his time in WCW.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAt one point, he was part of a tag team,

The Hollywood Blonds.

\h\hThey were this young, vibrant, arrogant tag team

spitting in the wind against the veterans

of that company at the time, \h\h\h\h\hbut he was always

\h\h\hone of the secondary performers in the company.

- I don’t think anyone in WCW \hever visualized Steve Austin

as being the top guy.

♪ ♪

\h- I was keenly aware that there was that upper level,

\h\hand I wasn’t a part of it, and unless something happened,

you could not break into that-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat next tier.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAesthetically, I didn’t have the right look.

I didn’t have the right gimmick \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor persona.

They didn’t think I was marketable.

- Get out of my face!

♪ ♪

\h\h- From the land of the rising sun...

- We was over in Japan on a three-week tour,

and the third night \h\h\hof that tour,

I jumped off the top rope

to splash a guy, \hand he moved,

and I tore my right tricep \h\h\h\h\h\h\hoff my elbow,

and so I wrestled \hfor 2 1/2 weeks

with a torn tricep, you know,

and as soon as I get back \h\hto the United States,

my first major surgery,

and I remember getting a call \h\h\h\h\hfrom Eric Bischoff,

who was running the WCW \h\h\h\h\h\hat the time,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand he goes, "Steve, I’m just, you know,

"letting you know that,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, you’re getting fired,"

and so that’s how it went down.

Got a FedEx the next day, \hand I was out of a job.

And I’m sitting there trying to heal up now.

The money is going to stop coming in.

\h\hI got bills to pay and my family to feed.

\h\hI’m like, "Man, what am I gonna do?"

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

\h\h\h- In September, 1995, I was the owner of the ECW

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand was in charge of all the creative direction.

\hSomeone from WCW buzzed me that Steve was being let go.

So I called Steve, and I said, \h"Hey, I heard you got fired."

- Right off the bat, \h\hthe phone rings.

It’s Paul E.

\h\hPaul calls me, and he goes, "Kid,"

\hhe goes, "I want you to come over to start working for me."

\h\h\h\hI said, "Paul," I said, "I can’t work."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI said, "I’ve got a torn tricep."

- "Oh, hell, kid, I’m hurt. \h\h\hI can’t do anything."

"Can you talk?"

\h\h\h\h\h"Oh, hell, kid, I can talk all day long."

"Come on up and talk."

- And I said, "Man, what do you \h\h\h\hwant me to talk about?"

\h\h\h\h\hAnd he goes--he goes, "Just talk about how you feel."

- "If you’re pissed off, \h\h\h\h\hcome and vent.

Let’s talk about that."

I wanted that...

authentic outrage

on my television show.

- Sure enough, there I am \h\hflying up to Philly.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWe go to that God dang ECW arena,

which was a complete \h\h\h\h\h[...] hole.

\h\h\h\h\h- ECW was--well, it was purgatory basically.

Probably closer to hell \h\h\h\hthan purgatory.

\h\h\h- ECW is Extreme Championship Wrestling,

and I dare say they earned \h\h\hthe extreme moniker.

[people shouting]

[dramatic music]

\h\h\h- In ECW, we were obsessed

with delivering performances

\h\h\h\hthat were going to redefine the industry

with doing that things that had never been done before.

- There were tables \h\hand barbed wire

and blood and guts

\h\h\h\h\h\hand people flying into the crowd.

♪ ♪

- We took in misfits.

I mean, if there was an island \h\h\h\hfor misfit wrestlers,

it was ECW.

- Oh, my God!

[cheers and applause]

\h- I’m the new guy in their territory.

What’s my mission? \h\hWhat’s my goal?

\hWho am I? What am I?

You know, you’re kind of lost.

I’ll never forget that night \h\h\hwhen I cut this promo.

\h\hIt was about seven or eight minutes long,

\hand I just started talking, and it was a one-take promo,

and everything I said \h\h\hwas how I felt.

You know, a couple of weeks ago

when Eric Bischoff told his secretary

to tell her secretary \hto leave a message

on my answering machine for me \h\h\hto call Eric Bischoff...

♪ ♪

And then I called \hEric Bischoff,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand he proceeded to fire me over the phone...

\h\h\h"We’re gonna put the U.S. title on you,

"and then we’re going \h\hto take you here,

\h\h\h\h"and then you’re the number one contender.

\h\h\h\hSo then you get this world title shot."

Well, all that [...] \h\h\hnever happened!

\hWhen I wrapped up that promo and they shut off that light,

everybody in that room \h\h\hstarted clapping.

- Standing ovation and rightfully so.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- He was able to express himself in a way

that you just could not do

or that we were not allowed \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto do in WCW.

- Man, after being held down or kind of restrained in WCW,

or no one believed in me,

\h\h\h\h\hI knew that I had to take chances on myself.

\h\h\h- You could tell that he was energized

and that he had an axe to grind

and he was grinding it \h\h\h\h\hreally well.

- And a lot of people say \h\h\h\hthat’s kind of--

maybe that was the genesis

of what "Stone Cold" would-- \h\h\h\h\h\hwould come from.

\h\hSteve-a-mania is gonna run wild

on the ECW, brother. \hI’ve said my piece.

I’m...

\h\h\h\h\hI’m not gonna do this [...] anywhere,

not even in ECW!

\h- Well, Jim Ross was always an admirer of Steve’s talent,

so I knew ECW was always vulnerable that Jim Ross

would recruit Steve into WWE.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOnce Steve did that interview on ECW,

Jim Ross came after him \h\hand rightfully so.

How could he not?

I didn’t realize how fast \h\h\hit was gonna happen.

- The WWE was subsidizing ECW \h\h\h\hwhen Steve was there,

so we had our eye on him

for quite some time, \h\h\hat least I did.

\hI just had to wait for the right place

and the right time to get him to WWE.

\h- So then phone rings, and it’s a maroon phone,

\h\h\hand I pick it up. "Steve, Vince McMahon."

"Hey, Vince, how you doing?"

"Hey, I want bring you in

as ’The Ringmaster,’ master of the ring."

- From a creative standpoint,

\h\h\hthe character of "The Ringmaster"

was the best in-ring performer \h\h\h\h\hand could do it all,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand to me, that was Steve Austin.

- And I’m sitting there \h\hlistening to Vince

\h\h\h\h\hmake this pitch, and I’m like, "Ringmaster?"

\h\h\h\hFirst of all, it sounds like shit,

but more importantly than that,

\h\h\h\hI made more money than I’m making from ECW,

\hand I ain’t got no other options.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSo I said, "Sounds good; let’s do it."

[soft dramatic music]

When I joined the WWE,

I know the territory was down, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know.

Things weren’t great.

They were getting by, \h\h\hbut, you know,

\h\h\hwe’d go out, and I don’t know,

it seemed like the house would \h\hbe, like, a quarter full,

but I was willing to be \h\ha part of the system

just because it’s so new.

It’s so big, and I’m so far \h\h\h\hlow down, you know,

\h\h\hthat, you know, I ain’t got no reason

to act like a big shot, \h\h\hbecause I ain’t.

Here I am as "The Ringmaster," \ha new gimmick, a bad gimmick,

and, you know, you don’t know \h\h\h\hwho and what you are.

\h\h\h\h- He’s all business, and, man, he’s not in there

trying to impress anybody with how good he looks or,

like, how pretty his hair \h\h\h\h\his or anything.

\h\hHe just wants to beat up people

and win matches.

- This character is a stretch,

because I don’t know \h\h\h\h\hwhat it is

or what it’s supposed to be.

\h\h\h\hAs "The Ringmaster," I didn’t who and what I was

or how I’m supposed \h\h\hto do things,

so it was very confusing, \h\h\h\hand after a while

I just stopped wearing \h\h\hthe green trunks

\h\h’cause they weren’t paying attention to me.

So I’m thinking, "Eh,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t think they really got plans for me."

- Vince looked at Steve, \h\hsaw an average guy,

says, "I don’t know what to do \h\h\hwith him and that accent.

\h\h\h\h\h"It’s just-- I can’t relate to him.

There’s nothing about him \h\h\h\hI can relate to."

- Well, my initial impressions \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof him was,

"He’s wasting my time."

- There was no way to go \h\hwith "The Ringmaster"

to make it marquee.

I don’t give a damn \hwho was doing it.

There’s nothing there, \h\hand I said, "Man."

I said, "This gimmick ain’t worth a shit,"

and after six months or so, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

\h\h\h\hVince was kind of like, "F, I don’t care what he does.

"If he wants--if he’s not happy

\h\h\hand he wants to come up with another name, let him."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI was living in a log cabin on ten acres

right outside of Georgia \h\h\h\hin Douglasville,

and I was over there \h\hin my log cabin,

and I was drinking some beer,

and that’s when they had \h\h\hthat special on HBO

about Richard Kuklinski, \h\h\h\h\h\h"The Iceman."

Well, Richard Kuklinski was a hitman, you know,

for the mob.

He’s cold-blooded. He’s remorseless.

I was glued to the set.

When you’re sitting there \h\h\h\h\h\hwatching it,

and you’ve got a couple \h\h\hof beers flowing,

and it’s like, "Man, this-- \hthis could be something,"

and I pitched that,

\hand, you know, that was when all the ideas started flowing.

- That’s a tricky situation,

where you’re fairly new \h\h\h\hin the company.

\h\h\h\hMr. McMahon has agreed to give you a character change,

\hand you were given a list from creative.

The fact that I can rattle off \hmore of "Stone Cold’s" names

than the terrible names \h\h\hthat I was given

\h\hspeaks to just how bad they were.

- And I had just gotten \h\h\hthose three pages

of names like "Fang McFrost..."

- "Snowman..."

- "Otto Von Ruthless.." \h\h\h- "Mr. Freeze..."

- "Ice Dagger..." - "Ice Dagger..."

\h\h- "Cool Luke.." - "Fang McFrost..."

\h\h\h\h- "Cool Cat.." - "Chilly McFreeze..."

- "Chilly McFreeze," I mean,

some of the worst names you could ever imagine.

- Even given everything else \h\h\hin the Austin package,

if he’s "Fang McFrost" \hor "Chilly McFreeze,"

\h\h\h\hwe’re not having this interview right now.

[dramatic music]

- And my wife at the time made me a cup of hot tea,

and she goes, "Drink your tea

before it gets stone cold," \h\h\h\hand she looks at me.

\h\hAnd she goes, "That’s your name,

’Stone Cold’ Steve Austin."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, I’m not a rocket scientist,

but when she said that name, \h\hI knew that was the one.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd I said, "Okay, this is a good name,"

\hand I wanted to be from Victoria, Texas,

because, you know, \h\hI just thought

it had a good ring to it, \h\h\h\h\h\ha good sound,

\hbut okay, now, who is this guy?

\h\h\h\h\hWho and what is "Stone Cold" Steve Austin?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI got me some black boots made.

\hI always thought black was badass and menacing

\h\h\h\h\hfrom Darth Vader, Oakland Raiders type stuff,

and it fit my persona.

\hI remember one time we were in Pittsburgh,

and we were about to work \h\h\h\h\h\hMellon Arena,

\h\h\hand there I was with that buzz haircut

\h\h\h\hand, you know, I looked in the mirror,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I said, "Man, what are you doing?"

So I buzzed it all off \h\h\h\h\hwith a razor,

and then that’s when I started \h\h\hmessing with the mustache

and it finally turned \h\h\hinto a goatee.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSo I start-- once I got that goatee down,

\hyou know, that’s when things started getting

a little bit more menacing

\h\h\h\h\h\hand picked up the visual that I needed.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I believed in the character, \h\h\h\hbecause the character

was a real person.

Steve totally embraced \h\h\hthe presentation

of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

♪ ♪

- He loved it.

He owned it.

He created it.

He was bold enough to bet on himself

and push and push and push

\h\h\h\h\h\huntil McMahon almost threw his hands up

and said, "Okay, okay, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hlet’s go.

Let’s try it."

He just needs a chance.

\h\h\hGive him a reason to be a main event guy.

♪ ♪

- 1995 to 1996,

"Stone Cold" is starting \h\h\h\hto find himself

\has a character, and then they have

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe 1996 "King of the Ring" tournament,

which would take place \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin June.

\h\h\hThe "King of the Ring" is a one-night pay-per-view.

\h\h\h\hWrestlers all go through this tournament,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand the winner is pretty much earmarked to be

the next great star.

That’s the message from the company.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWe’re gonna try and push them and promote them

and move them up.

\h\h\h\h\hBehind the scenes, it had already been planned.

Triple H was going to win \h\h\h"King of the Ring,"

\h\hbut before that, Triple H ended up punished for his role

with something called \h\hthe curtain call.

\h\h- We did a big no-no in the wrestling business

where all of us came together \h\hin Madison Square Garden,

\h\h\h\h\hmyself, Triple H, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall.

\h\h- What? Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

\h\h\h\h- We were expressing a real friendship out there

that had really nothing to do \h\hwith whatever was going on

in the WWE at the time

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor from a storyline standpoint.

\h\h\h\h\hWe were pulling the curtain back more so

\h\h\h\h\h\hthan anyone wanted the curtain being pulled back.

It’s very frowned upon,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand Triple H got in a lot of trouble.

- Yeah, oh, yeah.

\h\h\hIt was already-- Vince had sat me down,

talked to me about it.

"Here’s where I want to go, \h\h\h’King of the Ring,’"

and then, for me, that was \h\hthe next level, right?

\h\hThen, you know, that all went away.

- So in the pecking order, \h\h\has you looked at it,

\h\h\h\hyou looked at who needed that boost

\h\hand who needed maybe just a nudge.

Steve was the guy.

\h- I’m walking in the building dragging my suitcase behind me.

I hear this voice. \h\h\h\hIt’s Vince.

\h\h\h\h\hHe goes, "Steve, I just want to let you know

in two weeks you’re winning \h\h\h’King of the Ring.’"

[dramatic music]

\h\h\h\h\hI was pretty happy, ’cause, you know, when you win

the "King of the Ring," \h\hyou’re going to get

a big shove after that,

\hand before there were no future plans for me.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I go to Milwaukee, \hthe MECCA Arena,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand I go out there, and I’m working with Marc Mero,

and we do this thing.

\h\h\hWe’re having a match, and he kicks me in my mouth,

and we finish the match. \h\h\h\h\h\hI beat him.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMy mouth is busted open pretty bad,

so they take me in an ambulance

to the hospital,

and so I get stitched up-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h14 stitches

or whatever on my upper lip, \h\h\hand they bring me back,

’cause I’m gonna wrestle Jake "The Snake" Roberts

\h\h\h\h\hin the finals, and I’m gonna beat Jake

\h\h\h\h\hand become the King of the Ring.

\h\h\h\hWhen I come back, my mouth is stitched up,

and as soon as I get out \h\h\h\hof the ambulance,

there’s Michael Hayes.

- We’re in the back of the MECCA Arena,

and he came out.

He was going to the ring \h\hto go take on Jake--

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI mean, literally going to the ring,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I said, "Jake just cut a promo."

He says, "What’d he say?"

And I said, "You know, he just \h\hused some Bible quotes and,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, that he was gonna to win."

\h- My soul was purchased by the blood of the lamb,

but it’s--how can I lose \hif I just go out there

and know the power above

\his reaching down and lifting me up?

- And when he told me that, \h\h\hI immediately thought

of the football days \h\h\hback in the day

when they’re kicking \h\h\hthe field goals

or point after, they always had

\h\h\h"John 3:16" signs behind the field goals.

So anyway, we go out there, \h\h\hand we have the match,

myself and Jake,

and because my lip \h\hwas busted up,

we had a real short match.

After the match, I go over there

to do the interview with Michael Hayes,

who had smartened me up.

\h- You thump your Bible, and you say your prayers,

and it didn’t get you anywhere!

Talk about your Psalms. \hTalk about John 3:16.

Austin 3:16 says, "I just whipped your ass!"

♪ ♪

\h\h\h- "Austin 3:16 says, ’I just whipped your ass.’"

- "Austin 3:16 says, ’I just \h\h\h\h\hwhipped your ass.’"

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Said, "I just whipped your ass."

- "I just whipped your ass."

And thus a franchise was born.

- There was a vibe of, \h\hlike, a rocket ship

igniting its engine \h\h\hto take off.

- That was the moment \hwhere the character

really became a star.

That’s the epicenter \h\hof the explosion

that eventually happens.

- I remember thinking halfway \h\hthrough this promo, like,

"I’m watching this guy \h\h\h\h\h\hget made,"

and part of me was like, \h\h\h\h\h\h"Holy [...],

that should have been me,"

but also, "Well, [...],

I wouldn’t have cut \h\h\hthat promo."

- And I think the stitches \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin his lip

\h\hand coming back only added to the aura of that interview.

\h- I just got back from the hospital,

so I just kind of put that \h\h\htogether in my head,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I didn’t know what kind of holy [...] moment

that was, but it was,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand then, on the back side of it,

I knew I needed to wrap it up. I needed to put a button on it.

\hAnd that’s the bottom line, because "Stone Cold" said so.

- "And that’s the bottom line, \h’cause ’Stone Cold’ said so"

was on the spot.

\h\hI went to bat twice, and I hit two grand slams

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hout of an event I was never supposed to win.

Next night, we showed up, \h\h\h\h\hall of a sudden

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthere’s the "Austin 3:16" signs,

\h\h\h\hand we’re realized that there might be something here.

[funky percussive music]

- The next night on "Raw,"

\hyou saw all these "Austin 3:16" signs

all over the building.

\h- I remember thinking to myself at that time,

"Man, everything happens \h\h\h\h\h\hfor a reason,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbecause this guy is going to be massive now."

- One day, I’m talking \h\hto our merch guy,

and I’m sitting in the arena.

He goes, "Steven, office finally wants to come up

with a T-shirt for you. \h\hYou got any ideas?"

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI said, "You’re goddamn right I do."

I said, "Put ’Austin 3:16’ \h\h\h\h\h\hon the front,

\h\hput a skull in the back, and carve in ’Stone Cold.’"

\h"Okay, Steven," and sure enough,

we came up with that shirt, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand it sold

like a son of a bitch.

- From that point on,

\h\h\h\hwhen he got the chance to speak,

there was an intensity there \h\h\hthat you couldn’t help

but want to watch \h\hthat segment,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthe way he walked, the way he stalked opponents,

the way he looked at people. \h\h\hHe had that icy glare.

Because he was in the zone \h\h\h\h\h\hat that level,

you couldn’t help but be like,

"Got to see what \hhe’s gonna do."

- Why do you keep asking me \h\h\h\h\hstupid questions?

\h\h\h\h\h\hOn second thought, I’ll whip your asses right now!

Shut up.

\h\h"Stone Cold" never gave a rat’s ass about anybody.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t know what pressure is, fat boy.

\h\h\h\h\h’cause I got a big bunch of bananas,

and I can tell you \h\hwhere to stick

each and every one of ’em.

\h\h\hYou ain’t worth the sweat off of my--

- Hey, hey. \h\h- Brow.

\h- My mom used to tell me, "Steven, if you were on TV,

I wouldn’t let you watch you."

- You’re a piece of garbage. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Oh, no.

- So you take your camera \h\h\hand stick it, son.

And I ain’t leaving yet,

and you can stop counting me down,

\h\hbecause I done told you once, son.

- Please, sir.

- We’ve got a damn problem. \h\h\h\h\h- Hey, hey, hey.

- Hey, wait a minute! \h\h\h\h\h- No more.

That ain’t gonna work.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- That’s a production assistant!

- Get out of here, no!

\h\h\h\h- He is now the guy in the eyes of the audience.

Like, he can do no wrong.

They want to be part \h\h\hof that chaos.

They want to be part \h\hof that energy.

They want to go and experience

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin \h\h\h\h\h\hthe act live.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- And you really start feeling that momentum,

\hbecause you’re finally getting,

you know, the desired responses \h\hyou want from these people,

so now that I’m getting \h\h\h\hthat feedback,

I can feed it to you.

\h\h\h\h\hThroughout that period of time,

I’m trying my hardest \h\h\hto entertain you

or grab your heartstrings \h\h\h\h\hto make you feel

what I’m feeling, \h\hchannel that.

I’m doing my damnedest to try to affect you,

and I guess I was effective

at making people feel emotions.

all: Austin, Austin, Austin!

- There’s a perception \h\h\h\h\h\hthat Steve

just came out of nowhere.

\h\h\hThat’s a misconception on a lot of people’s parts.

"Stone Cold" lived within,

and it took ten years \h\h\h\hto come out.

♪ ♪

- Because if you look \hat that time period,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe WWE was at its lowest point.

The only way they could have \h\h\h\h\h\h\hgot any lower

is going out of business

or for the company \h\hto fall apart.

He dragged them into success.

\hAustin’s ascension is tied intricately

to the ascension of WWE.

We’re coming back to life. \h\hThe flame isn’t dead.

\h\h\h- By 1997, "Stone Cold" is the hottest he’s ever been.

\hThe company is billing him as one of the biggest stars

in their company.

He’s driving revenue.

He’s selling merchandise. \h\h\hHe’s making money.

\h\h\h- But up next, ladies and gentlemen,

the Intercontinental Championship Matchup.

\h\hIt’s Owen Hart in a title defense

against "Stone Cold" \h\h\h\hSteve Austin.

- Me and Owen, were going to have a hell of a match,

and we had had this plan

where he’d end up hitting me with a tombstone piledriver.

[soft dramatic music]

And I said, "You go down \hto your knees, right?

Because I’m looking \h\hfor clearance."

He goes, "No, I go to my ass."

I said, "But, it seems like

you got to go down \h\hto your knees."

\h\hHe goes, "No," and when Owen said,

"This is how I do it," \h\h\h\hI trusted him,

’cause he’s Owen Hart,

\h\hand so anyway, we get out there,

and things go like they did, and man, he goes to his ass,

\hand my head is sticking out about 6 inches below his ass,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand boy, I got spiked on the mat,

and it was not good.

- Let’s see what Austin \h\h\h\hcan do him in--

no, how about that?

- Tombstone!

\h\hTombstone piledriver, shades of the Undertaker!

♪ ♪

- Yeah, it was gnarly.

You could tell immediately

that Steve was--you know, \h\h\hthat he was injured.

\h\h\h\h- I’m afraid Austin’s been hurt.

- It sounded like someone hit \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha big gong,

and that was my skull, \h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

\h\hstriking that damn ring dead center in the middle,

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hAnd then I didn’t feel anything

’cause I’m laying there,

\h\hand I’m paralyzed, and I was like, "Man."

\hOn one hand, I could have freaked out and got scared,

but instead I remained calm.

I was like, "Don’t touch me. \h\h\h\h\h\h\hI can’t move."

And so he starts buying time

’cause I think I’m never \h\h\hgonna move again.

♪ ♪

- As soon as he got injured, \h\h\h\hI called his wife up.

\hI say, "Did you really get hurt,

or was this a show?"

\h\h\h\hHe said no. He really got hurt.

It was 1997.

To this day...

\h\h\h\h\h\hI cry about it every time I hear about it.

- I’m thinking, "I got to get \h\h\h\h\hout of this match.

I got to get out of this match \h\h\h\h\h\hso we can go back,"

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand Earl Hebner was the referee in that match,

and I told Earl--I said,

"Tell him roll-up \h\hfor the win."

\hI thought I could start moving my arms and legs,

\h\h\h\h\hand when I tried to, if you go back and watch that,

it’s like my knees are creaking \h\hto get in a crawl position,

and I can’t crawl like this, because my hands don’t work,

\hso I had to crawl using my forearms.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hAnd I get in the initial thing,

and he goes with me, and he \h\hdoesn’t try to fight it.

\hIt’s the worst roll-up in the history of the business.

\h- Driving-- no, kick out!

[bell rings]

- And man, I am--I am gone.

\h\h\h\h\hI’ve been, you know, a quadriplegic for 60 seconds,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand my world has been turned upside down.

\h\h\hThe referees come to the ring, and they--

three of ’em help me up.

\h\h\h\h\hI got my arms around their shoulders,

\h\h\hand I pull them off, because I want to get up,

and I want to address \h\h\h\h\h\hthat crowd

\h\h\h\hand hold up that belt, and the only reason I held up

that belt was to signal \h\hto the crowd that,

"Hey, man, I’m cool,"

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand man, when you look at that,

\h\hmy eyes are open, but I’m worlds away.

♪ ♪

\h\hAnd the referees help me to the back,

\h\h\h\h\hand as I’m walking, this leg is dragging behind me

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hquite a bit because of my nerve damage.

- I watched Steve stand up \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hon legs

that he couldn’t feel.

\h\hI don’t know how in the hell still...

that he was able to get up.

[cheers and applause]

That’s a will that supersedes \h\h\h\hwhat the body can do.

- Everybody thought \hI broke my neck.

\hI didn’t break my neck. I bruised my spinal cord.

I’m a pretty tough guy.

On that night, I was 1% tough

and 99% lucky.

\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, and that’s why I get

a little bit emotional \h\h\h\h\h\h\habout it,

because if anything would’ve \h\h\hwent any differently...

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[snaps] I’d have been in a wheelchair.

I wouldn’t be sitting here \h\h\h\h\h\htalking to you.

\hNothing that ever happened after that would’ve happened.

Everything was on the line.

\h\h- Get the ambulance people. Where are the ambulance people?

- Get an ambulance.

You want to just call 9-1-1 \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor what?

\h\h- Get the medics. - No, they’re over...

♪ ♪

\h\h\h- And I’d put a pair of shorts on,

and I was sitting up there \h\h\h\hagainst the wall,

\h\hand I was like-- well, I was shaking.

I kind of start crying \h\h\h\ha little bit,

\h’cause it scared-- it scared me so bad.

♪ ♪

- I think an injury \hof that magnitude

\hmakes us question our own mortality,

and that’s not something \hwe’re often faced with.

♪ ♪

- And I remember I passed the test in the hospital,

\h\h\h\h\hbut the doctor said, "You know, you’re pretty [...]"

♪ ♪

Initially, Dr. Torg said,

\h\h\h\h\h"Man, you’re not getting back in the ring."

And it’s easy for a doctor \hto sit there and tell me,

\h\h"Maybe you ought to think about doing something else,"

but this is what Steve Austin \h\h\hhas done for a dozen--

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor a living-- I’ve done it for eight years.

\h"Austin 3:16" started a year and a half ago,

\h\h\h\h\hand I ain’t ready to give that up for nobody,

\h\h\hand no one is gonna run me out of wrestling,

and there ain’t a doctor in the \hworld that can make me quit.

It took me long enough \h\hto get to the top.

And you get to the top, \h\h\h\hand it’s like,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hman, you’re riding a lightning bolt,

\hand you’re going 100 miles an hour.

Then all of a sudden, man, out of nowhere,

you come to a screeching halt.

- Here was his opportunity \h\hhe worked so hard for,

and... [snaps]

\h\h\h\h\hLike that, it could all be over.

♪ ♪

- And after that bad injury,

my anterior delts were on fire \hfor, like, a couple of weeks,

I mean, like someone \hput IcyHot on them.

It was the weirdest thing, \h\hbecause I didn’t think

it was ever gonna stop,

\h\hand it turned into an itch, and then finally it went away.

♪ ♪

So when I took that piledriver \h\h\h\h\h\h\hback in the day,

\h\h\hwhen those refs are carrying me out,

\hyou can watch my left leg kind of dragging behind me.

- Yeah, it’s hard to watch.

- So, like, if I get cold,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, that leg will kind of...

- Oh, wow.

- It just doesn’t respond \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe same,

\hand, you know, just when you bruise your spinal cord

\h\h\hand that stuff happens, it just--it doesn’t reverse.

- Yeah.

- So I’ve got some atrophy \hand some stuff like that.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hComing out of the pro wrestling business,

I asked the guys that are \hfive years older than me

and ten years older than me, "Hey, man, how you feeling?"

- Yeah.

- So I kind of know \h\h\hwhat’s next,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, or what they’re going through

’cause I know they’ve been \h\hthrough the same [...]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat I have. I’ve never had any neck pain.

- Wow.

\h\h- You know, everybody always thinks, "Hey, man,

"Steve got dropped \h\h\hon his head,

\h\h\h\h\hand he got a fusion, and his neck’s all jacked up."

Man, I feel good. \h\h\h\h\h- Yeah.

- You know, every now and then if I’m sitting around too long,

I’ll get a little gimped up.

Just got to stretch it \h\h\h\h\ha little bit,

but I really can’t complain \h\h\h\h\h\habout anything.

- Yeah.

- Through all the surgeries \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand the--

just the wear and tear \h\h\h\h\hof the road.

For what it’s worth, through \hall the stuff, I feel good.

\h- To WWE’s credit and Steve’s credit,

they managed to take \h\h\h\hthat injury,

and he became even bigger.

\h- It has been said that anything can happen here

in World Wrestling \h\hEntertainment,

but now more than ever,

\htruer words have never been spoken.

This is a conscious effort \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hon our part

to open the creative envelope, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hso to speak,

\h\h\hin order to entertain you in a more contemporary manner.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- For me, the start of the Attitude Era

was the day in late 1997

\h\hwhen Mr. McMahon addressed the roster,

admitted that the old days \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwere gone

and that if we were \hgoing to succeed,

\h\hwe would have to put our own personal emphasis

into these characters.

- The Attitude Era is a point in time

\h\hin pro wrestling history where WWE got a lot edgier.

[funky music]

\h\h\h\h- Get off me! Come on, get off me!

[tires screech]

- It becomes violent. \hIt becomes chaotic.

They push sexuality \h\h\h\hwith women.

They pushed storylines

that were blatantly \h\h\hover-the-top.

- I want you to get that mic \h\h\h\h\h\h\hout of my face!

\h\h\h- Everybody felt this interesting shift

that was happening \h\h\hin wrestling,

\h\hand that seismic shift now was away from the cartoon era,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthe superhero era, if you will, in pro wrestling

\h\h\hinto an edgier, reality-based program.

\h\h\h- The Attitude Era was the era of reality,

the era of pushing the limits \h\h\h\h\has far as we could.

[cheers and applause]

It’s the golden era.

♪ ♪

- The Attitude Era, \h\h\h\ha lot of it

was blending reality \h\h\h\hand fiction.

It was more real

and more versions \h\hof ourselves

just with the volume \h\h\hturned way up.

- Suck it!

\h- I would imagine doing the "suck it"

\hprobably caused more suspensions

and detentions in school

than any other thing \h\h\hin the history

of school in America.

\h\h\h\h- We saw the very best in what people had to offer...

- It’s Austin!

- And Steve happened to have \hbeen the best of all of us

at bringing that to the plate.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe was in a different stratosphere.

\h- Oh, my God. Steve, come on!

- It was the era of "holy shit."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSteve’s glass was the soundtrack to "holy shit."

[glass shattering]

[cheers and applause]

\h\h\h\h\h- No matter what was happening...

[imitates glass breaking]

"Holy shit!" \h\h\hRight?

Like, that was the moment.

\h\hI’m getting goose bumps right now talking about it.

[glass shattering]

[rock music]

\h\h\h- Whether it’s an arena of 2,000 or 20,000 or 100,000,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthey know when that glass breaks,

there’s a son of a bitch \h\h\h\hcoming out there

to deal out a can of whoop ass.

♪ ♪

- And when that glass broke,

\h\h\h\h\h\hhere he came with his whole, you know,

head bouncing, you know,

\h\h\hand he’s saying whatever he’s saying under his breath,

and you just see \hthat attitude.

♪ ♪

- I remember the first time \hI heard that glass break,

\h\h\h\h\hand I saw him walk down to the ring.

It was the first time

that I ever got goose bumps \h\h\h\hin my entire life.

20,000, 40,000, \h60,000 people

were going absolutely insane.

I said, "I want to be \h\h\hlike that guy."

\h\h\h\hIn that moment, I said, "I need to be a pro wrestler."

- That was the walk of a guy who had been down the road,

paid his dues,

learned the business,

had got over despite \hwhat anybody else

\h\h\h\h\hthought about him. "This guy is not marketable.

\h\h\h\h\hHe’s never gonna draw no money."

The company finally picked me,

\hand that’s the guy walking to the ring.

[cheers and applause]

\h\h\h\h\h\h- The character of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

\h\h\h\h\h\hwas a very reality-based persona,

\h\h\h\h\hwhich is not what this industry was built on,

so the whole Attitude Era \h\h\hthat was ushered in

was ushered in as an extension \h\h\h\h\h\hof the personality

\h\h\h\h\hthat was brought out by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin,

and that makes him \h\h\hin many ways

the most pivotal human being

\h\h\h\h\h\hand character in pro wrestling history.

\h\hNow we have to go a little bit higher.

\h\hNow we have to go a little bit bigger.

- "Stone Cold’s" success \h\h\hin the Attitude Era

can be attributed \hto many people,

but in order for your star hero

to become successful,

he has to have real, \h\hviable villains.

[tense music]

\h\h\h\h\hVince McMahon was the greatest villain

in the Attitude Era \h\h\h\h\hbar none.

[crowd booing]

\h- Vince would show up and some way take away,

\hlike, that thing that you desperately wanted as a fan,

and it drove me insane,

and that’s why the Attitude Era \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwas so popular

\h\h\hwas that Vince versus "Stone Cold,"

you know, rivalry.

\h\h\h\h- Vince and I were tailor-made for each other

to work together.

\h\h\h\hVince was unique, because he was the owner.

Now he’s feuding with me. \hIt’s a real story line.

- You can kiss my ass!

[cheers and applause]

[rock music]

♪ ♪

Because all of a sudden,

\h\h\h\h\h\hit wasn’t just about wrestling.

It was about this guy \hwho is an employee

against his boss,

and everybody is an employee \h\h\h\h\h\hthat has a boss,

\h\h\h\hand a lot of times, the employee does not like

what the boss has done \h\h\h\hor said to him.

- Screw you. You’re fired.

- Vince is crazy.

I mean, he really is.

That stuff is not far \h\h\hfrom what Vince

would do as to what \hMr. McMahon did.

- Mr. McMahon as a character

is now way in the world \h\h\h\h\h\h\hlike me.

We’ll start with that, \h\hbut he’s arrogant.

I am a handsome,

affluent entrepreneur.

He’s rich...

I said "black tie."

Can treat people like crap.

The thought of you, Austin, \hmakes me physically ill,

makes me want to vomit!

- Everyday people saw something \h\h\h\hof themselves in Steve,

and they saw Mr. McMahon

\h\h\h\h\h\h\has the system that was holding them down.

- Nobody, especially Vince McMahon,

tells "Stone Cold" Steve Austin what to do,

and that’s the bottom line.

- It was the consummate \h\hworking-class hero,

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin, \h\h\hagainst the machine.

- Ah!

♪ ♪

- Steve was the rage against the machine.

- "The Rattlesnake" is here!

\h\h\h\h\hOh, my God. I don’t believe this.

That’s one of the Corvettes in Mr. McMahon’s collection!

- That’s a $50,000 car!

- At that time,

\h\heverybody wanted to be "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

He captured everybody’s

feelings perfectly.

- You are the world’s

dumbest son of a bitch!

- Vince was like a kid \h\hin the candy store

getting to work with me,

because he always wanted \h\h\hto be a wrestler.

\h\hHe finally got a chance to perform

\hand not just oversee and give instructions.

If you go back, man,

\h\h\hyou watch some of the blue jeans I wore,

some of the shorts I wore would get wringing tight.

\h\h\hI couldn’t physically pick my leg up high enough.

Always the target is the gut,

\hbut when you can’t pick your leg up high enough,

right below the stomach \h\h\his the testicles.

- He didn’t know where those kicks were going, you know?

He really--you had no idea. \h\h\h\h\h\hHe had no idea.

He was going to make contact \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith something

that was in front of him.

- So many times I kicked him \h\h\h\hright in the jewels,

and he’d just go, \h"[...], Steve."

[soft dramatic music]

- You know, if Steve kicks you \h\h\h\h\hin the nether lands

or something like that... \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[chuckles]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit’s-- it’s easy to sell that.

\h\h\h- We had to keep upping the game a little bit, so...

- "Stone Cold!"

- What could "Stone Cold" do \h\h\h\h\h\hto up the ante?

We had boards of stuff.

- "What the hell can Steve do? \h\h\h\h\h\h\hSomething crazy.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t know, drive a Zamboni to the ring!"

\h\h\h\h\h\hSeriously, that’s how it happened.

- Oh, he’s on a Zamboni!

Look out; he’s gonna crash!

\h\h\h\h\h- There was the Zamboni incident,

we did Vince in the hospital.

\h\h\h\h\h- There you see Mr. McMahon via satellite.

- I want apple juice!

\h\h\h\h\h- Oh, man, that was a great one.

So I go out there...

- How about you, doctor?

- Oh, I’ll take it from here, nurse.

- No, no, no, ah!

\h\h- And I said, "Man, I’m worried

\habout hitting you with that bedpan,"

\h\h\h\h\h’cause that was a stainless steel bedpan.

Man, that son of a bitch is-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit was hard.

\h\h\h\h\h\hHe goes, "Steve, you got to."

- And I’m watching Steve, \h\h\hand he’s walking up

and down the hallway \h\hin the hospital,

and he’s hitting his head \h\hwith the damn bedpan.

\h- I was kind of just bouncing it.

\h\h\h\hWhen you hit people with objects for a living,

\h\h\h\hyou become an expert at hitting people, you know,

with objects for a living, \hso when I swung it, boy,

I just reached up \hand grabbed it

and nailed him with it.

- Ah!

[monitors beeping]

\h\h\h\h- "It ain’t ballet," as the expression goes, you know.

Help me, please!

- This is going to hurt you \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha lot more

than it’s going to hurt me. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Ah!

- I love Vince.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe guy would do absolutely anything for me,

and I would for him too.

\h\h\h- And again, every now and then,

someone very special \h\hwill come along,

and Steve is that.

- Man, there was \ha period there

where everything we did

\h\hwas a home run and a grand slam,

\h\hand if you hit a double or triple,

that was a bad day.

[tense music]

- At his peak, Steve was

one of the most recognizable \h\h\h\h\hfaces in the world.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h- "Austin 3:16" shirts were now in Spencer’s Gifts

and Hot Topic and Walmart,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand you go in Foley’s or Macy’s,

and there’s "Austin 3:16." \h\h\h\hIt was everywhere.

\h\h\h\h\h- And, of course, you know, he had one quarter

where he made a million dollars \h\h\h\h\h\h\hselling T-shirts.

\h\h\h- If you look at any sales chart,

Steve Austin’s T-shirts

are still amongst \hthe best sellers

in WWE to this day!

- Well, it first hit me when--

me and my wife would love \h\h\hto go to Las Vegas.

\h\h\h\hEvery single person I saw walking the streets,

\h\h\h\h\h\heverybody has Steve Austin T-shirts on.

It was crazy.

[cheers and applause]

- If you turned on the TV, \hall of the night shows...

\h\h\h\h\h- Please welcome "Stone Cold" Steve Austin!

- Man, it’s good to be here. - Yeah!

- Yeah.

- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin \h\h\h\h\h\hfor the block.

- Oh, secret square, \h\h\h\h"Stone Cold!"

- Any show like that, \h\h\h\hhe was on it.

Commercials...

[loud clang]

- Can I get one more of those?

- Sure.

- Wrestling just came in \h\h\h\hlike a tsunami.

- Thanks, Dan. \h\hThat helps.

\h\h\h- "SportsCenter" wasn’t embracing wrestling back then,

and I just remember this tidal wave of,

"Whether you’re accepting us \h\h\hor not, here we come."

- Hold it.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- I wasn’t even a wrestling fan,

but he was so big,

he crossed over into mainstream.

- We’d like to welcome back "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- He was bigger than wrestling.

People who aren’t \hwrestling fans

or don’t care about wrestling, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\heven they knew

who Stone Cold was.

- When you cross over \h\h\h\h\h\hlike that,

that’s when you know \h\h\hyou’ve made it.

\h\h- Hey, man. - How are you?

\h\h\h\hNice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too.

- I’m a big fan of yours. \h- Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

When "Austin 3:16" \h\hbecame so hot

\h\h\hand everybody had heard about it,

\h\h\h\hand we would be, you know, in an airport,

and I’d get preachers \h\h\h\h\hand priests

and religious people, you know, they’d say,

\h\h"Hey, man, is it okay if I get your autograph?"

And I say, "Sure."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI said, "I thought you’d be mad at me

\h\h\h\h\h\hfor inventing the ’Austin 3:16’ thing."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe said, "Oh, nah, we don’t care."

[laughs]

[cheers and applause]

\h\h- Steve’s legacy is one that kind of makes it hard

for us to be WWE superstars.

His impact is felt in a way \h\h\h\h\h\hthat none of us

can kind of compare to.

You know, we certainly try,

\hbut there’s always going to be somebody

somewhere that’s going to say,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Pretty good, Not ’Stone Cold,’ though."

♪ ♪

- When it was at its peak \hduring the Attitude Era,

it was mob city.

It’s like the Beatles \h\h\h\hjust landed.

It was amazing.

It sounds glamorous, but you’re choosing

to be on the road a lot.

You have to love the business to put yourself through that.

That’s where you really start evaluating your entire life.

♪ ♪

[light music]

- Man, when you’re running \h\hlike I was at my peak,

\h\h\hit’s hard to do anything other than be a pro wrestler,

\hbecause it consumes everything about you.

You are in go mode 24-7, 365.

♪ ♪

You are a slave to the road,

\h\hand you never want to come off the road,

because if you come off the road, you get soft,

so I was never home.

That’s a recipe for disaster.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt all looks fun when you’re seeing it on TV,

but it ain’t always TV.

\hTV is a very small part of the life that you live

when you’re doing that job.

\h\h\h- The pressure was immense for him,

and part of that was \h\hI think because

he had so much going on.

As the pressures mounted \haround him work-wise,

\h\h\h\hhe had a lot of pressures at home

and a lot of pressures \h\h\hwith his family,

and it’s a lot. \hIt was a lot.

- You know, that’s the thing \h\h\h\h\habout the business.

\h\h\hYou’ve got all the personal problems

that everybody else does.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hGot two daughters. Stephanie Britt’s the oldest.

Cassidy Skye is the youngest.

♪ ♪

And I remember I came home

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI think when Stephanie was born.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI flew in. I was in New York City.

We were working in New York. \h\h\h\h\hIt was the Garden.

Man, I flew home.

I was there for her birth,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand then as soon as she was born, I held her.

\h\h\h\h\h\hI gave her, like, her first bottle.

I got on an airplane,

and I was in Pittsburgh \h\hthat night working.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\h- The truth is, even guys that were married

\h\h\hand had families and things like that,

\h\h\h\hthey were more married to the road and the business.

- To be successful in this industry,

you have to be willing \h\h\h\h\h\hto commit

an enormous amount of time \h\h\haway from being home.

There’s just no other way \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto do it.

It’s an extremely \hdifficult life.

It really is.

If you have a family, \h\hit’s so difficult,

so difficult on everybody.

I think that’s probably why

there’s such a high rate \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof divorce

and things of that nature.

- I try to not bring up \h\h\h\h\h\hthat stuff.

\h\h\h\h\hI knew what family life was like.

It’s unsatisfying.

It’s a source of consternation.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s a source of crying children and heartbreak.

\h\h\hIt’s a source of unhappy spouses.

- It’s not like you’re making \h\h\h\ha conscious decision,

"Hey, I’m putting everybody \helse on the back burner,"

\h\hbut I decided to get a divorce.

You know, when you go through \h\hdivorce, they’re chaotic,

\h\h\h\h\hso obviously you’re very distracted.

I was living in a house,

but once I decided to get a divorce,

I moved literally about two or three miles down the road

in a little double-wide,

and although I was going \h\h\h\hthrough the pain

\h\h\h\h\hor whatever goes with the divorce, when I--

moving into that double-wide-- \h\h\h\h\hme and a double-wide,

\hfor some reason there’s synergy.

I had two cinder blocks \h\h\hwith a 1x12 plank

where my TV was.

\h\h\hI had my cooler, you know, full of beer.

It’s too bad that the marriage \h\h\h\h\h\h\hdidn’t work out,

but I found comfort and solace \h\h\h\h\hin that double-wide.

♪ ♪

You can be in the business,

and you can still live \h\h\h\h\ha full life,

\h\h\h\hbut everything else is kind of like white noise.

I’m putting all my chips \h\h\h\hin my own basket,

and this is what I’m doing,

\h\h\hand that was the first and foremost priority was me.

Selfish I was,

and I was gonna ride myself

\h\h\h\hand everything that the business had

\h\h\hto get to the top and do the best I could.

- There’s a sacrifice \h\h\h\hto greatness,

and it’s a price

\hthat a lot of people are not willing to pay

\h\hbecause there is an intensity to it.

\h\h\h\hThere is an obligation to your own vision and dreams

that you have to service \h\h\h\h\h\hat all costs

over and above everyone else \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin your life,

including yourself.

Your own self interests \h\h\h\htake a backseat

to your dreams and aspirations \hof what you want to achieve.

♪ ♪

He’s had multiple marriages \h\h\h\h\h\hthat fell apart.

He’s had multiple friendships \hthat will never be repaired,

but that’s the price you pay

to look back on a body of work

and have everyone else \h\h\h\haround you say,

"He changed the game."

♪ ♪

- Man, I am very demanding.

I was a professional wrestler.

It’s what I lived and died for.

♪ ♪

- He took a lot of things \h\h\h\h\h\h\hpersonally.

He wanted everything \h\h\hto be perfect,

and he always wanted \h\hto be challenged

with new information \h\hand be creative.

It kept your star happy.

Keep your talent happy \h\h\has best you can.

♪ ♪

- If you don’t build \h\h\h\h\hnew stars,

you can’t feed the superstars \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hat the top,

\h\h\h\hso when Steve became the big star in the business,

he knew he needed a fresh rotation

of brand-new stars \h\h\hto work with.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMr. McMahon couldn’t be that equal,

\hbecause once they got into the ring together,

it wasn’t a very good match.

You needed someone \h\hthat you could

honestly look at and say,

\h\h\h"This guy can measure up to ’Stone Cold’ Steve Austin."

- If you smell

what The Rock is cooking.

[cheers and applause]

- To build an opponent \h\h\hfor Stone Cold,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthat opponent should be on TV regularly

and go six months \hwithout losing.

Start planting little seeds.

Can you imagine what this guy \h\h\h\h\his going to be like

\h\h\h\h\h\hwhen he takes on "Stone Cold" someday?

- My first couple of years \h\h\h\h\hin the business,

and I watched this guy, \h\h\h\h\hSteve Austin,

ascend to the top

\h\h\h\hand start to achieve this incredible popularity,

and I would just quietly \hwatch in the shadows,

\h\h\hstudy his behavior, and watch how he operated

because that was a position \h\hthat I wanted to be in,

and I think he knew that.

- I just remember watching him \h\hstarting to gain momentum,

\h\h\h\hstarting to establish a relationship with the crowd.

He’s starting to get over. \h\hThere’s something here.

I need to watch this.

- And I remember him saying something to the effect of,

"There’s something there, kid!" \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[chuckles]

"There’s something there."

♪ ♪

There was also this bond

like he was a big brother \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin a way,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand then we knew that we were going to converge

and that we were going \h\h\hto work together.

And as far as The Rock \h\h\h\h\his concerned,

the greatest book ever written \h\h\h\h\h\h\his the one titled

\h\h\h\h\h\h"The Rock Versus ’Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.’"

[cheers and applause]

- They were natural together.

They had great chemistry.

I think that Steve and Rock \h\h\h\h\hliked each other,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hso that helped, and they both rode that wave.

- The Rock, "Stone Cold" \h\h\h\hat WrestleMania!

[cheers and applause]

- I loved the relationship \hwith The Rock and Steve,

because they were both very, \h\h\h\h\hvery competitive.

♪ ♪

They were always wondering how the other was feeling,

how the other one \h\h\h\hwas doing.

\h\hThey never left each other’s radar.

They pushed each other.

They made each other better.

\h- In the world of pro wrestling,

you can only control so much,

\h\h\h\h\hand after that, it becomes the intangible.

- Rock commandeered a camera. \h\h\h\h\h- He can do it all!

- The Rock’s jig is up! \h\h\h- What a stunner!

- And that intangible--

what everybody searches for-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\his chemistry.

I knew exactly what he was \h\hgonna do all the time.

He knew exactly what I was \h\hgonna do all the time.

That’s just kind of \hthe special thing

that you just feel.

\h\h\h- Man, it’s like watching two comets fly through the sky

and hit each other.

It never happens.

\h\h- Oh, wait, no! The Lou Thesz press!

- I think it was the apex.

I mean, it was really the peak,

and Steve Austin and The Rock

were the two hottest stars \h\h\h\h\hin the business.

\h\h\h- We were fighting for the exact same thing

\h\h\h\h\h\hand that was the number one top spot

\h\h\hin the company at a time when the company was on fire.

It’s really rarefied air,

\hand we were fighting for that rarefied air,

but it was out of so much love \h\h\h\h\hand so much respect.

- God, it was so fun to watch \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand a privilege

to see something like that \h\h\h\h\h\hwhere you have

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthese two big talents coming together.

- It’s a new champion!

[bell dings]

- Man, that was a great ride.

♪ ♪

- Rock and I never rode \h\hthe roads together.

He ran with a different crowd,

but whenever we see each other,

\h\h\h\h\h\hit’s just like the last time we left off.

It’s a friendship that is forever.

\h\h\h\h\h- That was a guy who looked at me and said,

"You--you and me, \hwe’re gonna go,

and we’re gonna go \h\hto the dance."

That decision to take me,

if you will, under his wing, \h\h\h\h\hit changed my life.

[tense music]

\h\h\h\h- Steve’s gonna be the first one to tell you

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat he’s got just a core group of friends.

\hI mean, he’s not gonna just be your best friend

just to be your best friend.

- They say it’s lonely \h\h\h\h\h\hat the top,

\hand I think Steve was pretty lonely.

[soft dramatic music]

- I ran with myself. \hI was a lone wolf.

My place was on top \h\hof that roster,

on top of that card.

There’s so much jealousy.

\h\h\h\h\hI really lived the thing I came up with

\h\h\hyears ago--DTA, don’t trust anybody.

♪ ♪

\h\h- DTA, don’t trust anyone makes for a good catchphrase.

I don’t know if it’s \h\h\h\hthe best way

to go through life, but I think that is

how Steve went through his life at that time.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- The DTA, don’t trust anyone thing,

\hthat wasn’t Steve playing a character,

\h\h\hangry, bitter, paranoid, like, there was a lot of that.

Steve’s a very private guy. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe just is.

He never really talked \habout his home life.

Every now and then, \h\h\hhe’d tell you

something about his family, \h\h\hbut for the most part,

he kept all that stuff \h\h\h\h\hto himself.

- People have always asked me \h\h\h\h\habout my daughters.

In the past, I haven’t talked \h\h\h\h\htoo much about ’em,

\h\h\hand it’s because of the strained relationship

\h\h\hthat it was and me being gone all the time.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hI never won father of the year,

’cause I’m purely on the road.

I’m gonna come home

for my two days off every now and then.

I’ma cook some flank steaks on the grill and drink beer.

\h\h\hThat’s as much as I’m contributing.

\h\hI hate to say that. That’s the way it was.

♪ ♪

I knew that I loved ’em, \h\hbut I wasn’t there.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hBack in 2001, my wife took the kids over to England

to visit her side \h\hof the family.

And 9/11 happened,

and then that’s when \h\h\heverybody was--

\h\hor at least she was afraid to fly.

They kind of stayed over there.

I was always gone anyway, \hso what’s the big deal?

So they stayed over there,

\h\h\hand they kept staying over there,

\h\hand as time went on, well, I called Stephanie

\h\hjust to talk to ’em, and we started talking,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand she had a proper London accent.

\h\hWhen I hung up the phone, I started crying like a baby,

because she used to sound \h\h\hexactly like I do,

for better or for worse,

without the four-letter words, \h\h\h\hshe had my same accent,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand to hear her with an English accent, yeah,

\h\h\h\h\hthat shook me up, because I was like, "Okay."

Yeah, you know.

\h\h\h"What did I do wrong or could have done better?"

\h\h\h- That’s the bottom line because "Stone Cold" said so.

- Now that they’re older,

we’re on the way to building \h\h\hbetter relationships.

So now they’re pursuing \h\h\htheir own things.

I support them.

If I can give them \hany advice, I do.

Through all the B.S. \hthat has happened,

we’re talking now.

\h\h\hThe relationships, as strained as they were,

\h\h\hthey’re better now, but it’s still a building block,

\h\h\h\h\hbecause truly after all these years,

we still don’t know each other \h\h\h\h\has well as we should.

\h\h\h\h\h- That was the Faustian bargain

that he cut with himself

in order to myopically,

\h\hobsessively go after the success that he knew

\h\hin his heart he could achieve.

- You have to get it \h\h\hwhile you can

\h\h\hand then hope that you can make up

for all the other stuff

\h\h\h\hthat you put on the bottom shelf

\h\hwhile you went out and lived your dream.

There’s a lot of casualties \h\h\hthat come with that,

and you have to be willing \h\h\h\h\h\hto accept that.

Your window is really small.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hFor most guys, it really is a small window.

♪ ♪

- He always felt like he was \hgonna lose his spot in line

if he was not on the road.

"I can’t be home.

\h"I got to be on the road with the rest of the guys,

\h"’cause somebody else is gonna have a great match.

They’re going to be noticed, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I’m not."

The drive for that, \hthe lust for that,

he could never get away from.

- Anytime that someone \h\h\h\his successful,

they have a hands-on approach.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSteve had a very hands-on approach

\h\h\h\hwhen it came to the presentation

of what he was going to do.

\h\hSteve was very demanding, but Steve could be guilty of,

"This sucks."

Okay, it sucks, Steve.

What do you want to do \h\hto make it better?

\h\h\h\h\h\h"I don’t know. God damn, you’re a writer.

[...] write something."

\h\h\h\h\hSteve would get mad, throw it away, and storm off.

\h\h\h\h- This was at a time when The Rock was kicking--

breaking Hollywood,

and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin \h\h\h\h\hneeded a new equal.

- Steve would have been \hvery easy to maintain

and manage if we’d always had a good opponent ready for him,

and why wouldn’t you?

\h\hI think that’s what led to a lot of Steve’s frustration,

complaining about \h\hhis opponents,

\hyou know, complaining who he was working with.

He wasn’t get red hot villains.

"Nobody is ready.

And nobody has been groomed \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor me."

The process had failed him.

When the creative stuff

started going south \h\h\ha little bit,

it had a more profound effect \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hon him

than it would a lot of guys,

because he felt like \h\hthis foundation

is starting to crack.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- And I was like, "Dude, what is going on here?"

When you’ve been trying so hard \h\h\h\hso long to be that guy

and you get that chance, you ain’t letting it go.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- I found out what creative had in mind

\hfor Steve and Brock Lesnar, and I confirmed it with Vince,

"Oh, you’re going to work \h\h\hwith Brock tonight,

and you’re going to lose," \h\h\h\hand it sort of was

very premature to try to have \h\h\hSteve and Brock wrestle

with no build-up.

\hThis is a match that can sell out indoor stadiums,

but there’s no story there.

It was thrown together, \hand it meant nothing.

- Jim Ross calls me \hwith the creative

for "Monday Night Raw."

Tells me, long story short, \h\h\hthat I’m doing a job

\h\hfor Brock Lesnar. I said, "Oh, really?"

I said, "Well, if that’s \h\hgoing to be the case,

I ain’t going to be there."

So sure enough, \h\h\hI woke up,

I had two Bloody Marys, \h\hgot on an airplane,

\h\h\h\h\hand I was flying back to San Antonio, and I was mad.

\h\hIt ain’t about winning or losing.

\h\hI’ll let anybody beat me as long as it’s for a reason,

\h\h\h\h\hit means something, and there’s money behind it.

\h\h\h\hAnd so I said, "No, I ain’t doing it,"

and I went home. \h\hIt was over.

I was done, and it cost me

a lot of respect \hfrom my peers,

\h\h\h\ha lot of money, and that’s what I did,

\h\h\h\h\hand as they said it, "I took my ball and went home."

♪ ♪

- Man, I felt like

\h\h\hhe kicked everybody in the cojones, you know?

It felt like that all of a sudden, "Wait a minute,

\h\h\hwhat is wrong with him? How is he thinking this way?"

\h\h\h\h\h\h- To his credit, Vince called me three times.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe left me a voice message each time.

I never called him back.

I didn’t want to talk to him \h\h\h\h\h\h\hon the phone.

I was still hot.

And for about six months

\h\h\h\hI was hunting, fishing, and drinking

and not necessarily \h\h\hin that order

\hand making a lot of bad decisions.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, just time was going by.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hFinally, I’m going through my mail.

There’s a card from Jim Ross.

I didn’t expect a card \h\h\h\hfrom Jim Ross.

\h\h\h\h\h"Hey, man. Just checking on you.

"Wanted to see if you’re okay.

If you ever want to talk, \h\h\h\hgive me a call."

And I felt right then that \h\h\h\hthat was my friend

throwing me a lifeline. \h\h\h\hI called him up.

It was back when they had

those old Motorola \h\h\hflip phones.

I burned through two batteries \h\h\h\h\h\h\htalking to Jim.

- We’d just speak for hours,

life, football, you know,

booking, marriage, \h\hrelationships.

Boy, he really needed to talk.

- He goes, "Hey, man.

"Do you think if I ever put you and the old man in a building,

"you can hash this out and put it behind you,

and you come back to work?"

I said, "I’d [...] love that."

He facilitated the meeting between myself and Vince,

\h\h\h\hand I’m thinking, "Man, we either gonna fight or hug."

♪ ♪

We started talking. \hWe hashed it out.

I told him what I was thinking,

\h\hand we got back on the same track,

and then shortly thereafter, \h\h\h\h\hI returned to work.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Hello, Steve. It’s good to see you.

Very good.

♪ ♪

- When I did come back,

I knew what I’d done, so I remember going up

\h\h\h\h\hto basically the whole locker room.

\h\hYeah, I apologized to a lot of guys, and it was warranted.

♪ ♪

[glass shattering]

[rock music]

\hWell, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is back,

and I can guarantee you

that I am going to raise \hmore hell in this ring

than I’ve ever raised \h\h\h\h\hin my life.

♪ ♪

- Stunner!

Oh, the Stone Cold Stunner!

\h\h- I came back for a few months,

but man, it’s a hard-ass job.

[soft dramatic music]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI was backstage with Bruce Prichard one time,

\h\hand I just kept having this nerve jump in my leg,

\h\h\h\h\hand it was just like everything

in my nervous system \h\h\h\hwas so shot,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, the atrophy in my hands,

\h\h\h\hthe other things that I was going through.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt was, like, finally starting to unwind me.

And it’s like, "Dude, \h\hwhen is your body

"gonna give you enough signals

\hthat you need to get your ass out of here?"

\h- The feeling was basically that he had pushed the limits

\h\h\has far as he could, and that it was time to--

\h\h\hhe didn’t want to push them anymore,

and I think Steve just saw \hthe writing on the wall.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- I can’t imagine how agonizing it was for Steve

\h\hto make the decision that his career was over.

♪ ♪

He had to resign himself \h\h\h\h\h\hto the fact,

\h\h\h\h"This is as far as the character goes."

- Now, the question then would \hbecome who will he wrestle,

and what will be the outcome?

Steve being an old-school guy

he wanted to go out \h\hthe right way.

He wanted it to be Rock.

He owed it to Rock.

But he didn’t want to distract \hfrom The Rock getting a win

\h\h\h\h\hby him saying this was his last match,

so we kept that confidential,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwhich is the professional thing to do,

and it shows great love and respect for Dwayne.

- It’s bigger than wrestling.

I just like The Rock, \hand so I didn’t tell

hardly anybody at all.

Obviously, Vince knew.

\h\h\hJim Ross knew, and I told The Rock.

- When I found out that his last match

was going to be with me,

I had really mixed emotions.

You know, we hugged, \h\hand it makes me

a little emotional now,

because it is the ending \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof a career

that has been so influential

on not only me

but the world of wrestling \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat we love.

- It hurt to walk away.

It was a real tough decision \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto make,

but I just figured it was the best decision for me.

♪ ♪

- I think the days leading \h\h\hinto WrestleMania 19

were miserable for him.

"How am I going to do? Am I going to deliver?

What are people going to say? \h\h\h\h\h\h\hHow do I look?"

- The day before WrestleMania, \h\h\h\h\h\hI was at the gym.

\hThis is at a time when I was drinking

about three bottles \hof wine a night,

\h\h\htwo pots of coffee in the morning to get up

\h\h\h\h\hand a bunch of the energy drinks

\hto get you going, really dehydrated.

Man, my feet kept jumping, \h\hjust nervous reactions.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI was like, "Man, what is going on?"

\h\h\hAnd I was staying at the Grand Hyatt hotel

there in Seattle,

and I went up to the floor \h\h\h\h\h\hthat I was on,

and as soon as I got out \hof the elevator, man,

\hmy heart started beating out of my chest so hard and fast,

it scared the [...] out of me.

And I was thinking, \h"Man, I’m dying.

I just got my number called. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI’m gone."

And there was a WWE employee \h\h\h\h\hnamed Liz Difabio

coming down the hallway, \h\hand I looked at her,

\hand she could see that I was as serious as a heart attack,

no pun intended, and I said, \h\h\h"Liz, I’m in trouble."

♪ ♪

\h\hThey take me down to the emergency room,

\hand they put all these tests on me.

And they thought I had a pulmonary embolism.

\h\h\hThey thought a bunch of things,

and the thing was that I was \hjust basically dehydrated,

\hdrinking too much alcohol and way too much caffeine,

and finally, you know, \hit was time to stop.

- So Vince and I were there. \hHe put too much on himself.

\h\h\h\hHe worried too much. He overthought the situation.

♪ ♪

\h\h- So I woke up the next morning.

The doctor didn’t want \h\h\hto discharge me.

\h\h\h\h\hHe wouldn’t clear me to wrestle,

but I was gonna wrestle,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I was gonna wrestle The Rock.

♪ ♪

Get into the building.

[indistinct].

I’m walking around

\h\h\h\h\hseeing everybody going through the motion.

Hey, good morning. \h\h\h- Hey, Steve.

\h\h\h\h\h- Here he is. - What’s going on, man?

- How y’all doing?

\hIf I talked to anybody or hardly said anything,

I was about to start crying.

♪ ♪

When you’re making \h\h\h\ha decision

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto walk away from your number one passion

that you love for, oh, man,

I’ll make this go away.

So I was like this \h\h\hall day long.

♪ ♪

And then of course, you know, \h\h\h\h\hwe’re getting ready

for the match, it’s like, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Okay, man.

"Let’s go and turn it on, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hrip it up.

You know, and if your heart \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hexplodes..."

[chuckles]

If I died in the ring, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hhey, man,

\hwhat better place to go than in Mania

in the middle of the ring \h\h\h\h\hwith The Rock?

So, you know, [...],

\h\h\h\h\hyou can’t plan a better death than that.

[cheers and applause]

\h\h\h\h- This what we’re here for, JR?

\h\h\h- The Rock said he was gonna confront

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I take it all in.

\h\h\hI feel everything, and I sense everything,

the smell, the feel, the love, \h\hthe tone of that building.

♪ ♪

[bell dings]

- It ain’t about nothing \hbut a wrestling match

between two of the greatest

that have ever been \h\h\h\hin the ring.

- Oh!

That’s the clothesline. \h\h\h\h\h- Oh, my God!

\h- And The Rock, is he gonna do it?

- Big one!

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Oh! - Hard Rock Bottom.

A firm Rock Bottom!

A hook of the leg! \h\h- You saw it!

[bell dings]

- When that three-count hit, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hit was like...

[sighs]

I was just laying there.

And it was like someone lifted \h\h\h\h1,000 pounds of bricks

off my back.

Damn near 70,000 people \h\h\hin that building,

\h\h\h\ha couple million watching on pay-per-view.

\h\h\h- We were both laying in the middle of the ring,

and I sat up...

\h\h\h\hAnd I remember I pushed the referee,

Earl Hebner, away.

♪ ♪

- He knew that I was going.

\h\hHe knew that I didn’t want to go

and this was a hard decision \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor me to make.

- I lowered my head down to Steve’s ear,

and I said,

"I can’t thank you enough

\h\h\hfor everything that you have done."

And then I said, "I love you."

- I remember just laying there \h\h\hin front of 70,000, man,

saying, "Man, I love you too." \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[chuckles]

♪ ♪

I told him I loved him.

Verbatim I said, "I love you too."

Two big-ass, tough-ass guys \h\h\h\htelling each other

\hthat they loved the other one in front of millions of people.

- I felt like that was the time \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto tell Steve,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbecause there is no other moment in our world

\h\hwhere we are as raw and open and vulnerable

than in that moment \h\h\h\hright there.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hWhen the one, two, three happens,

it’s just two men \h\hwho have gone

on this incredible journey.

You know, I have goose bumps \h\h\hnow thinking about it.

\h\hIt’s--that was the moment to say,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Man, I love you, and I can’t thank you enough."

[cheers and applause]

- What makes Steve career different than most others

is just how hot he got, \h\hhow fast he got hot,

and how short of a time \h\hhe had to enjoy it.

- I was seeing the end

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof something that will never be replicated,

seeing the end of a moment \h\hin a pop culture genre

that will never be reproduced.

- Now I can go enjoy the life \hthat I have in front of me.

[soft dramatic music]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- You know, retirement always sounds good,

\hand then there I was, and I was doing nothing,

and I was going crazy.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hStraight up, man, I hit the bottle pretty hard.

♪ ♪

- I do know that he was \h\h\ha bit lost after,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, having to leave the business,

trying to redefine himself

and see what is life \h\hafter wrestling?

♪ ♪

\hHe had three years that he talked about

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhow he was just drinking and eating

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand just a little bit depressed.

♪ ♪

- I’ll tell you this true story.

Woke up one morning.

I was looking right at myself \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the mirror.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI said, "Dude, the things that you are doing

\h\h"are not conducive to living a long life.

You better straighten \h\h\h\hyour ass up."

It took me three years \h\hof being a [...] up

to come to my senses to say, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h"You know what?

"You had to quit the business.

You ain’t doing nothing now.

"You better get your ass \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hout to LA

"and try to capitalize \h\h\h\h\hon at least,

\h\h\h\h\h"you know, some part of the name

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat you spent so long trying to build up."

♪ ♪

Look at me, you piece of trash!

[explosion]

I heard you been running around

saying you could take me \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin a fight.

- I wouldn’t say that.

- Let’s get busy, Hollywood.

\hAnd initially I came out to California to get into acting.

\h\h\h\hI quickly realized that I didn’t really want

\h\h\h\h\h\hto do that, and when I found hosting

and reality television \h\h\h\h\htype stuff,

\h\h\h\h\hthat’s when I knew I’d kind of found my niche.

I’m "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, \h\h\hJerry "the King" Lawler,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmy next guest on "Broken Skull Sessions."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hCheck it out, and that’s the bottom line,

because I said so.

♪ ♪

- Great.

- And so I started podcasting, \h\h\hand the reason I started

\h\h\hwas just to keep in touch with people.

\h\hI guess it was just all built on the history

\h\hof what I’d put forth inside the squared circle.

♪ ♪

- He’s got the podcast \h\h\h\h\hthat he does.

He’s got TV shows he hosts.

\h\h\h\h\h\hI would say the biggest difference

between the "Stone Cold" \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwe see now

and the "Stone Cold" \h\hwe saw back then

\h\h\his he doesn’t have the pressure.

♪ ♪

- I’m a civilian now.

\h\h\hIt took me a while to turn into a civilian,

but I’m a civilian now.

\h\h\hMy problem is, man, I’m a type A personality,

so I’m always in a hurry.

\h\h\hI’m in a hurry when I don’t have anything to do.

This is Brownie,

our chocolate lab we rescued \h\h\habout three weeks ago.

\h\h\hThese are my Kawasaki KRX 1000s.

This is my Corvette. \hThis is a KLX 450.

This truck right here \his 1966 Chevy C10.

♪ ♪

I’m not a wrestler anymore.

I had a good time doing it,

but at the end of the day, \h\h\hnow it’s about life.

♪ ♪

\h\h- When you step through the curtain,

\h\h\h\hyou’re in front of the paying customer,

and that’s where you got to be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe person

they perceive you to be \h\h\h\h\hon television.

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

And you’re that person \hfrom the first step

through the curtain until the last step

back through the curtain.

You’re a performer out there.

♪ ♪

- Talk about your Psalms; \h\htalk about John 3:16.

\h\h\h\h\hAustin 3:16 says, "I just whipped your ass!"

♪ ♪

- Stone Cold Stunner!

Austin did it! Austin did it!

♪ ♪

- Nobody tells "Stone Cold" \h\hSteve Austin what to do,

and that’s the bottom line,

’cause Stone Cold said so.

♪ ♪

- When you come back through the curtain,

you’re a human being,

\h\hand those human beings are worried at that moment

when they’re stepping back \h\h\hthrough the curtain,

\h\h"Was I good? Did they like me?

\hDid I do all I could do? Did I maximize my minutes?"

♪ ♪

Coming back through,

it’s where the rubber \h\h\hmeets the road.

♪ ♪

That curtain is a big thing,

and how you navigate \h\h\h\hthe curtain

\hand how you react on both sides of it

\hlargely spells your success in the pro wrestling business.

\h\h\h- Look, I got placed in a real good situation,

\hand I got a chance to have a lot of fun

doing something I love, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hbut, like,

I still feel like I’m sitting \h\h\hhere in this damn chair,

and I’m still Steve, the dude from Edna.

In my mind and in my eyes, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat’s me.

♪ ♪

That’s all I can say.

♪ ♪