DJD Classics: WWE's Biggest Personality - 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: DJD Classics: WWE's Biggest Personality – 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin
Date: November 11, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Aaron) with Co-host
Guest: Stone Cold Steve Austin

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Overview

This DJD Classics episode is a deep-dive conversation between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and WWE legend "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The show covers Austin's journey from his Texas upbringing to wrestling superstardom, the formation of his 'Stone Cold' persona, life lessons learned in and outside the ring, and the cultural impact of his career. The discussion also explores wrestling behind the scenes, the evolution of promos, the realities of life after sports, and the bonds built through shared struggles.

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Key Discussions and Insights

1. Transition to Life On the Road and Podcasting

[02:04–04:14]

• Austin describes his current TV show, journeying across America to meet interesting people—including Dale Jr.—and his enjoyment in returning to life on the road after retiring from wrestling.
• He discusses launching his own podcast, with both family-friendly and explicit versions.
  • "I love to salt and pepper my language with four letter words. So I run an explicit content show as well. That's kind of my go to." – Stone Cold Steve Austin [03:46]

2. The Broken Skull Ranch Story and Moving West

[04:14–05:59]

• Austin details his pride in owning the Broken Skull Ranch in Texas and the realities that led to selling it, particularly due to the oil industry encroachment and logistical challenges.
• Now based near Reno, Nevada, he enjoys unrestricted access to public land for outdoor adventures.

3. Texas Roots & Early Days

[06:01–08:56]

• Born in Austin, raised in Victoria and Edna, Texas.
• Played multiple sports—football, baseball, discus—and grew up hunting and fishing.
• Strong work ethic instilled by family:
  • "If you weren't going to work, you can get your ass handed to you." – Stone Cold [09:43]

4. The College Football Dream and Setbacks

[10:10–12:50]

• Austin envisioned an NFL future, excelled at junior college, and got scholarship offers, but a knee injury derailed the plan.
• Transitioned from football to manual labor, including driving a forklift.

5. Early Wrestling Inspiration and Break-in

[14:22–16:02]

• Hooked on wrestling at age seven after watching Dusty Rhodes:
  • "I saw Dusty Rhodes bleeding his ass off. ...I looked at my mom... 'why don't that security guard go over and help Dusty?'" – Steve Austin [14:30]
• Idolized Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair, eventually considering Flair the greatest world champion ever.

6. Early Struggles: Working the Territories

[16:09–18:15]

• Austin's beginnings: low pay, long trips, and constant hustle across Dallas, Tennessee, and Atlanta.
• Copied Ric Flair early on, but realized the need to find his own voice.

7. Learning the Art of the Promo

[18:23–22:25]

• Started out nervous and unskilled. Developed promo chops through necessity, especially under the mentorship of Paul Heyman at ECW:
  • "Paul Heyman helped... teach me how to focus as a laser with a promo to deliver a message, get that message across and affect people and make people feel things because that's how you draw money." – Steve Austin [21:35]

8. Nerves, Persona, and Getting in the Zone

[24:04–26:31]

• Even with experience, pre-show nerves were common, especially "when that red light's running" on live TV.
• Austin thrived with larger crowds and higher stakes, simply cranked his personality "up to 11".

9. The Evolution to 'Stone Cold'

[26:33–33:22]

• The Ringmaster persona felt inauthentic—Austin wanted more.
• The 'Stone Cold' name was coined by his then-wife with a British tea analogy:
  • "Just drink your tea before it gets stone cold... that's your name." – Steve Austin [28:56]
• Pushed for more creative freedom with Vince McMahon, arguing:
  • "If you don't give me my personality, I can't compete. But if you give me my personality, I can compete with anybody you got." [32:01]
• Shift from heel to babyface: career-defining double turn with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13.

10. Character, Heel vs Babyface Dynamics

[33:22–37:55]

• Austin always preferred playing a heel due to creative freedom.
• Even after a turn, fans continued to cheer for him due to his authenticity and connection.

11. The 'Attitude Era' and Industry Changes

[38:53–43:12]

• Reminisced on Monday Night Wars:
  • "That was the Monday night wars. ...we was throwing everything but the kitchen sink..." – Steve Austin [39:23]
• Discussed the shift to scripting promos, which Austin found restrictive and difficult:
  • "It's hard for someone to try to write. You weren't in South Texas... you didn't have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder." [42:00]

12. Life After Wrestling: Transition & Lessons

[43:47–48:45]

• The abrupt end due to neck injury was difficult.
• Struggled with the transition from stardom, coped with hunting, fishing, and drinking before finding new ventures in TV and podcasting.

13. Giving Back to New Talent & the Future

[50:43–52:14]

• Austin stresses to young wrestlers the importance of planning for life after the ring:
  • "Start planting those seeds right now so when you spin out of this, you come out with momentum." [51:23]
• Observes a more controlled, sponsor-friendly environment making it tougher for today's stars to break through as he did.

14. Peak Moments and In-Ring Memories

[55:20–66:10]

• Most iconic match: WrestleMania 13 against Bret Hart—a blood-soaked, storytelling masterpiece.
• The essential trust between performers, with Bret Hart being his favorite opponent for professionalism and mutual respect.
• Describes the gritty realities of getting "color" (bleeding) in the ring and the lack of training or preparation for it.

15. The Beer Bash & Business Ventures

[66:10–68:44]

• Origin of the iconic beer celebration—taking inspiration from "Sandman" in ECW, then making it his own.
• Launch of 'Broken Skull IPA' beer brand.

16. Life Now: Outdoors, Hunting, and Hobbies

[68:44–73:54]

• Still hunting, now mostly in Nevada.
• Enjoys a quieter lifestyle, devoted to business, brand ambassadorships, and spending time with family.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On leaving WWE and the power of the promo:

  • "When you turn me up to 11, that's me." — Steve Austin [21:35]

• On reinventing himself:

  • "If you don't give me my personality, I can't compete. But if you give me my personality, I can compete with anybody you got." — Steve Austin [32:01]

• On overcoming scripted promos:

  • "I can't work off paper." — Steve Austin [48:56]

• Classic 'Stone Cold' advice to younger talent:

  • "Start planting those seeds right now so when you spin out of this, you come out with momentum." — Steve Austin [51:23]

• On his favorite wrestling moment:

  • "Most satisfying moment in my entire wrestling career." — describing lying in a pool of blood at WrestleMania 13 [57:26]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Introduction to Stone Cold’s TV show and podcast | 02:04 – 04:14 | | Broken Skull Ranch & Ranching Stories | 04:14 – 05:59 | | Early Years in Texas, sports, family | 06:01 – 09:43 | | Football dreams & end of college | 10:10 – 12:50 | | First encounter with wrestling, wrestling heroes | 14:22 – 16:02 | | Early career, struggles, Ric Flair emulation | 16:09 – 18:15 | | Learning promos & Paul Heyman’s influence | 18:23 – 22:25 | | On-stage nerves, performing in big moments | 24:04 – 26:31 | | Creation of 'Stone Cold' persona | 26:33 – 33:22 | | The double turn with Bret Hart | 33:22 – 35:56 | | Attitude Era vs. Today | 38:53 – 43:12 | | Life and challenges after wrestling | 43:47 – 48:45 | | Advice for new talent | 50:43 – 52:14 | | Most memorable matches & ring trust | 55:20 – 59:31 | | "Getting color" and ring realities | 60:20 – 64:30 | | Beer bashing, beer business, and new ventures | 66:10 – 68:44 | | Hunting, post-career routine, and wrap-up | 68:44 – 73:54 |

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In the Words of Stone Cold Steve Austin

• "Half goes in, that's for me, half goes on, that's for everybody else. It's a win-win situation." (on beer bashing) [67:05]
• "You want to make people forget about their problems for about two hours and put a smile on their face." (on wrestling's role in people's lives) [53:41]
• "Retirement always sounds like the R word. ...Hell, I retired when I was 38, man. You know how much money I left on the table?" [45:00]
• "If I can't be the main guy, I don't want to be any guy." (on why he stayed away from wrestling for a time after retirement) [46:20]

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Tone & Flow

The conversation was authentic, relaxed, and laced with humor and grit. Austin’s charisma and realness shine through every story, as does Dale Jr.’s curiosity and respect. They trade stories as two icons from different worlds, each relating to the highs, lows, and transitions of peak athletic careers.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Stone Cold’s authenticity and toughness came from a hard-working Texas upbringing and a relentless drive to become his own man in wrestling.
• His career transformation—from struggling rookie to icon—was marked by finding his own voice and pushing creative limits.
• Wrestling is both art and business, with backstage struggles and personal evolution as vital as what happens in the ring.
• Life after the spotlight is challenging; planning and adaptability are crucial for any athlete or performer.
• Rituals and traditions such as "getting color" and sharing beers became both spectacle and storytelling tools, infusing the sport with memorable pageantry.

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This episode is a must-listen for wrestling fans, students of sports entertainment, and anyone interested in personal growth through adversity and reinvention.

Transcript

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[Podcast Host Aaron]

The following is a production of Dirty Bone Media.

[Podcast Co-host]

Hey, let's rewind a DJD classic.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Enjoy. Okay, we got Stones Cold Steve Austin in the house. I'm excited about this. We've met before, but it's always been at a racetrack. You've been brought in to give the command, wave the green flag, things like that. We've never really been able to sit down, but you've got a TV show. Tell fans a little bit about that real quick, man.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

We're just traveling around different parts of America and just roll up on different people that I find interesting, you being one of them.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yeah.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And so we kind of do some activities, have some conversation. It's a good time and it kind of puts me back out on the road, you know. I retired from wrestling business in 2003 and I did a little bit of acting. I don't really care to act. I don't like to remember anything. So we come up with this show and I've been podcasting for about five or six years. But to get back out on the road is kind of the fun part. And so I think the show's gonna premiere sometime this summer, and I'm looking forward to it. And I'm looking forward to talking with you.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yeah, I've seen some good clips of the show. Basically just hanging out, talking, having great conversation with people. And so I'm looking forward to doing that later today. But this morning you've been kind enough to come out here and join us on our podcast. We got a lot of questions for you. You said that you got your own podcast. How do you enjoy doing the podcast yourself?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

You know what? I wanted to get in the podcast business about a year before I did, but, man, I am the worst at technology, so I didn't know what to do. So Podcast one called my agents up and my agents called me and said, hey, man, Podcast one called and asked if you want to do a podcast. I said, hell yeah, I do. So we started that thing up and I started with just doing one show a week, and then it hit real good, so we started doing two. So I've really enjoyed it because when you get away from the kind of the global entity that WWE is, it's a worldwide platform, and all of a sudden you go from that to nothing. And so if I've got something I want to talk about, push this, that or whatever, or some awareness, you gotta have a voice. And so I might as well be standing on the corner with a megaphone now with the podcast. It's not the same size as wwe, but it's that platform. So I love it. And I run two shows. I run a family friendly show. And me, man, I love to salt and pepper my language with four letter words. So I run an explicit content show as well. That's kind of my go to. That's my favorite one. And I've been on a break for about three or four months. I had to get some things taken care of, but I. I really enjoy it and I kind of stay a little bit wrestling centric, but I like to talk to people from all walks of life.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

You gave me this hat when you came in. Broken Skull Ranch. What is Broken Skull Ranch?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Broken Skull Ranch. I sold that place about three years ago, man. Oh, you did?

[Podcast Host Aaron]

I didn't know that.

[Podcast Co-host]

I didn't either.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

That ranch was my pride and joy. It was always my goal to own a ranch in South Texas, Deer hunting and stuff like that, because that's where we grew up. And finally I said, man, it's time to buy a place. And found 2,000 acres down there in South Texas. And A part of Texas known as the Golden Triangle. And it's called the Golden Triangle because everything that grows within a specific region is very high in protein. And that's the brush country. And everything that grows out there will cut you, stick you, or hurt you. But it's high protein for the deer. So if you got genetics and you give them some time, you can grow some big ass deer. And once I shut the gate, I love people and I performed in front of people, you know, my whole career. But also left to my own devices, man, I'm a hermit. So if me and my wife go down there with our dogs and I don't see another human being for a couple of months, it was a good time. And finally it just got. It got to be where it was just too much work. 1500 miles down there and 1500 miles back. And there's always work on each end to be done. And I maintain that place like a state park. And when the Oakville came in, that kind of changed things a little bit because I was a surface owner. Owner. And so if you got minerals, that means you can come in on my property and use my surface to get your minerals. And once the oil field happened, I just kind of. I kind of lost interest in it. And I said, hey, it's time to get out. And so we bought a place in Nevada around reno, which is 1,000 miles closer. So I'm able to get there more often to enjoy the great outdoors. And with Nevada being Such, you know, 90% of Nevada is public land. So I get out of my side by side, my four wheelers, and I can ride anywhere I want. And I love that.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Talked about Texas. You're from Texas? What part?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Born in Austin, Texas.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Austin has a lot of different sort of boroughs in there. What was the particular area, though?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I cannot remember because my dad, I think he was changing tires or running a tire store and something went wrong and my mom and dad split up. My mom went down to Victoria, Texas. Victoria? Yes, sir.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Well, I say that because my wife Amy's from Victoria and a lot of people in Victoria claim you.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Oh, yeah. And I claim Victoria.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Right on. So it's true?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Oh, absolutely. I was born in Austin, but when my mom had to get out of there, she went down to Victoria and that's where she met my stepdad, Ken Williams. And we lived there for a couple of years. My dad was selling insurance. And then finally we moved 25 miles up the road to a little town called Edna, about 5,000 people. And that's where we all started school, but I was in Victoria for a couple of years and as a matter of fact, when I came up with the Stone Cold Steve Austin moniker, because when I came into wwe, they want to call me the Ringmaster, they didn't have any designs on making me a worldwide superstar. Right. And so after about six months of that, I said, hey, man, I need to come up with this different name. And I came up, we came up with the Stone Cold thing. And I said, you know, I gotta be from some. Someplace that's got a cool ring to it. And I couldn't be Steve Austin from Austin, Texas, because that's redundant.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yeah.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And then everybody always wants to be from a big city, right? You know, Los Angeles, California or Las Vegas or something with some pizzazz to it. I said, man, I said, man, I'm from a small town. I love the way Victoria, Texas sounds. It's got a ring to it. You remember it. You might not know where it is, but you'll look on a map and try to find it. And I actually live there. And our old address was 404 Rhodes Road. The people living there right now probably mad at me for saying that. Little bitty ass house. And yeah, I cut my teeth there in Victoria.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

What'd you do in Texas growing up?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

The only thing you could, if you was in South Texas, you had to play football, right? And I love baseball, so I played baseball as well. And then I threw the discus. I thought it was going to be a long distance runner. And I was running around the track one time jogging because I had good endurance back in the day. And I seen this boy huffing and puffing over there, throwing the damn discus. And I said, man, let me give that a whirl. And I threw that damn thing out there and I threw it way farther than he did. So I said, man, to hill with a long distance run. And I thought, I'll start throwing the discus.

[Podcast Co-host]

You found your sport right there.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Found my sport. So I played football, baseball and track. And then my dad, my stepdad, and we don't use the word step in our family. So my dad got us hunting and we had never hunted before. And I'll never forget, you know, trailing behind him, you know, my older brother Scott, me, and then Kevin walking behind my dad in the woods. He's carrying his rifle and he was forever looking behind us going, you know, be quiet with that. Come to Jesus. Look, stop stepping on twigs. So just playing sports, saltwater fishing and hunting.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

First job.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Landscape guy, my senior league baseball coach, guy named Dan Metter, and he was a landscape guy. And so I started working the landscape business, planting stuff and mowing yards, but basically landscaping. And then through that, I'd work on lease crews, cleaning up oil field stuff, hauling hay out there in South Texas, work for the highway department, you know, in the summer, you know, driving a cement truck or, you know, that, that asphalt truck, patching roads or putting patches in roads, anything that was manual labor I specialized in.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah, that makes sense. He's a work ethic guy. I've listened to a lot of his podcasts. I think that that's what Steve Austin is about. He wants accountability and work your ass off. Am I right?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, the thing about, you know, growing up in our household, I mean, you was going to do your chores, and that was no two ways about it. Dad had a strict set of rules and, you know, and so did Mom. And we all. We rotated on doing the dishes, we rotated on mowing the yard, and we had a system. If you weren't going to work, you wouldn't go. You can get your ass handed to you. That's just the way it was.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

So what was your favorite sport? Was it football or baseball?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

It was football, and I love baseball. I played catcher, and I had a pretty good arm on me.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Did you think you were good enough to go into the NFL or did you?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I did. Yeah, I did. In a small system that we were in down there in South Texas, we were playing 2 and 3A ball. And so Houston's 100 miles away. That's all the 5A schools, and that's where all the badass athletes at. Okay. So down there in South Texas, I was. You knew who my last name used to be. Williams, number 32. You knew who Williams for the Edna Cowboys was? That was me. And I would run your ass over. I ran north and south because I couldn't afford to run east and west. And so they give me that football. It was a sweep left or a sweep right or something right up the middle. And I was running downfield. And coming out of high school, man, I just think, man, all these schools got to come recruit me because I'm a pretty good running back. All I got was a junior college offer, and I was offended and upset and I needed that scholarship offer because my parents couldn't afford to pay for no college. And I want to keep playing football. So I go to a little school outside of Houston called Wharton County Junior College. And I'll never forget I was talking to my mom's friend Evelyn, and I said, oh, Evelyn, don't worry about it. I'll go to junior college and make all American for a couple of years, then go to a big school. Let me tell you something. There are some football playing fools in the junior college system that either they can't make the grades or they got a learning disability or something like that, but they will knock your ass out. And I was lucky enough to get two scholarship offers out of there to University of New Mexico and North Texas State University out of Denton, Texas. I took my trip to New Mexico, they took me skiing, I went to North Texas and I knew I didn't want to leave the great state of Texas. And I got out there and I was running a 40 yard dash one time and the juco coach had pumped up my stats a little bit right there running 40 yard dashes. And the guy, a coach, head coach called me over, goes, williams, come here. He said, williams, come here. Yeah, coach, what's wrong? He goes, you're running a 4, 9, 4 0. I said, yep. I said, your coach at junior college said you ran a four, seven. I said, hell, coach, I ain't never run a four, seven in my life. He said, williams, get out of here. So anyway, I blew my ACL out on my junior year playing linebacker and I came back the next season. I started all 11 games at weak side defensive end. And I know you love the Redskins. I saw the writing on the wall and football wasn't as fun as it used to be. And that's when I segued out of there and I Left College with 17 hours to graduate and started working on a freight dock driving a forklift. Holy cow, manual labor.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Did you ever go back and finish your college?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

People have asked me that and I know a lot of people go back and do that, but I have nothing to prove. Me getting a degree and putting it on the wall means nothing to me now. When I talk to young kids and stuff like that these days, I say, hey man, arm yourself with as much education as you can get or go to a trade school, learn how to weld or work on something mechanical. But for me, it doesn't mean anything. It was going to help me in my endeavors from there on out.

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[Podcast Host Aaron]

So fill in the gaps between when you graduated college to how you got involved in wrestling. What happened in that period?

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah, where did that start?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, from. Well, I remember one time I was at the house, I was 7 or 8 years old and I was flipping channels on TV and you did it by hand back in. My mom was over here in the chair and I come across Houston wrestling and I saw Dusty Rhodes bleeding his ass off and somebody had the Iron Claw on him. And it was a smoke filled arena at Sam Houston Coliseum and there was a guard walking around the ring and there was only a rope banister and it was smoky, everybody was smoking back in. And you know, the guy had a pistol, he had a sidearm on and Dusty was in bad shape. And I looked at my mom, she's over reading Red Book and I said, mom, I said, why don't that security guard go over and help Dusty? Because he got a gun. He was in on the gig. But I was hooked. So I knew at the end of the day, my goal was to be a professional wrestler.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Oh really? That early?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

How old were you there? Seven or eight. I watched my whole life and I'd been there watching wrestling. My brothers and my sister coming here. Turn this stuff off, man. We want to watch something else. I said, hey man, it's only our show. Let me watch this and you can watch whatever you want to watch.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

I wasn't allowed to watch wrestling in my house because it apparently made me too hyper.

[Podcast Co-host]

I can't imagine.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

But man, me and my sister Kelly used to sneak in our wrestling. NWA would come on Saturday mornings. And Dusty Rhodes was my favorite, one of my favorite. Magnum Ta.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yes.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Tully Blanchard. Ole. And Arne Anderson, all those guys. Ric Flair obviously was a big, big deal here in Charlotte. Who were some of your heroes? You mentioned Dusty. Who were some of the other guys that were heroes of Yours growing up.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

A lot of guys you just mentioned and I consider Dusty to be one of the greatest of all time. And you know, he was a heavyset guy. You know, Dusty could work his ass off, he could tell a story and he could sure talk, he could talk a blue streak. And I love Dusty, but I consider myself to be the greatest world champion in the history of the business is Nature Boy Ric Flair.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Oh man.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And as far as just an in ring performer, then you go to like a Shawn Michaels. But the guys you just named, really.

[Podcast Co-host]

Did you try to emulate them? Like, like, like we all did as a kid when we're playing wrestling and we're like, I'm going to be this, who? Who are you?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, you know, that was the problem with the early part of my career when I was with World Championship Wrestling in Atlanta. You know, I started off in Dallas, they shipped me over to Tennessee territory. I was starving my ass off. We worked the same towns every single week and I was making 15, $20 a night. You know, most of those trips, you know, three or 400 mile round trips and you can't even afford to eat. You got two guys riding with you and they're putting gas. I had a 1980, I had a 1988 Hyundai Excel. Payments were $154 a month. My brother co signed the lease for me and that thing almost got repoed a couple times. And I was never going to get it repoed because I wasn't going to screw my brother. Right? Yeah, I was starving, I was literally starving. And I patterned the early part, to answer your question, the early part of my career in World Championship Wrestling after Nature Boy Ric Flair. And I was kind of like thought of as being the next Ric Flair when in all actuality there will never be another Ric Flair. And that actually kind of was a hindrance to my development because Yanging out Ric Flair, Ric Flair because he was still in the territory. We'd go to television tapings in Gainesville and over in Anderson, South Carolina, towns around Atlanta, because we're all based out of Atlanta, a lot of guys based out of North Carolina as well. And man, you go to like a tag team situation or a six man tag and I'd be on the same team with Rick and all of a sudden the man goes there and there and just lights it up and you're sitting on the apron thinking, okay, you thought she was good. And you think you're going to overtake this guy. And you realize, not so fast my friend. Because when Ric Flair Turned it on. There wasn't no following it.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

So. So, you know, how do you guys, you know, the promos is what a lot of people remember. How do you guys work on that? How do you become so good at it?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I'll tell you what, you start off being bad at it. You know, I started in Dallas, Texas. I went to the Gentleman Chris Adams wrestling school. I saw a commercial on TV when I was back at my college dorm. And this is when I was still driving that forklift for Watkins Motor Lines. And I said, hey man, I need to go check this out. So I went down there to the seminar, signed up. Five months later, I'm having my first match. I'm out there, you talk about green as grass. And this is back when I before I had to go tee and I had long blonde hair down the middle of my back. Pretty good looking kid. I don't know what the hell happened. And I go out there and I start trying to talk because they're trying to promote the school or I got a few promo opportunities. And when you first start off, your voice is kind of high. You don't know how to talk from your diaphragm. You don't really know what to say. You haven't really created a character. So there's no base or ground base to build from. And so you flounder. And when you go out there, well, you're doing the best you can, but you know, when you to bed, you have done just that. And once you fall in your face enough, you learn, hey man, this is sink or swim. These are shark infested waters. You better succeed or your ass is going to get left behind. So it's very competitive. And so finally, if you go through the paces enough, and when I got to World Championship wrestling, they teamed me. They didn't know what to do with me. They knew I was a talent, but they didn't figure I had it yet. So he stuck me in a tag team with Flying Brian Pillman. And if you remember Flying Brian, we used to drive down the road and Brian was one of those guys that would sit there and read, you know, dictionaries and books just to try to increase his vocabulary. And he was out there and he was forward thinking. And if you put a microphone in front of his face, he always had something to say. So all of a sudden it was like, man, hey, you better crank it up, Steve, or you're gonna look like a deaf mute next to Brian because he's lighting it up. So he kind of pushed me and Then it was really when I started learning how to cut a promo deal. I was over in Japan. It was a three week tour and I jumped off the top turnbuckle on a guy and he moved and I bent his arm too far up under me. I tore my right tricep off my arm. So I wrestled for two and a half weeks, you know, with torn tricep. Because back in the day, and you know, from injuries you suffered, hey, you worked through it. When I came back, that's when Paul Heyman called me up. I answered the phone, he goes, hey, Steve, he had just started up ECW down there in Philly. And he goes, I want you to come work for me. I said, hell, I can't work, Paul. I said, I got a busted arm. He goes, you ain't got to work cut promos. I said, well, man, I had 10 acres. I had a log cabin, a wife and a kid. I needed the money, started flying to Philly every week. And Paul Lee sat me down one time it was about 4:30 in the morning. That's how we ran over at ECW. And I was a new guy in the territory. So I was letting everybody talk first because I'm not going to jump in a system because I come from the big territory and I can't talk worth a damn anyway. And so he says, hey, Steve, he goes, you're up. I said, well, hell, Paul, I said, what do you want me to talk about? I said, what am I doing? He goes, just talk about how you're feeling. Just talk. And he turned the cameras on and I rattled off that promo still on YouTube. ECW and I talked for about six minutes nonstop. Ad lib told it like it was. And that was probably the groundbreaking promo where I started feeling who and what I was. And I hadn't come up with a stone cold thing yet, but I realized at that point that who I was in that ring was based. I'm competitive as hell in anything I do. So what I was was, when you turn me up to 11, that's me. And Paul Heyman helped kind of teach me how to focus as a laser with a promo to deliver a message, get that message across and affect people and make people feel things because that's how you draw money.

[Podcast Co-host]

That's interesting because I think they're great communicators. People don't give them credit, but to be a great.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Oh, people give them credit. The promos are probably the most watched thing that you'll, you know, that's what everybody's waiting on is his promo or, you know, but you know what I've.

[Podcast Co-host]

Always wondered, you know, because we would always try to emulate this. And so to emulate a promo, you'd have to get grungy and get that raspy voice and then you got to start yelling. And then as soon as you start doing that, your throat gets itchy and you start coughing. Did that ever happen?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Boy, again, that goes back to learning how to speak from your diaphragm. And it's funny because going back to those old promos, there was different periods of the wrestling industry and especially a lot of those guys out of NWA territory because that was my favorite territory, that Mid South Power Pro by Bill Watts. But there became a trend back in the day. Everybody would say, brother, brother. Let me tell you something, brother, pally. You know, it's like you go into the brother mode. Everybody's saying brother because it's the end thing to do. That's so funny. That was the trend. That was the trend, brother. But the last thing you want to do is start hacking and coughing during the promo. When you try to give somebody the bottom line, it sort of loses its luster, doesn't it? Steve's all choked up, but he really wants a little mess. Hold on. Hey, what I was saying. But you know, sometimes you get out there and you know, if it's a post promo, your little cotton mouth, because you've been out there, you don't know what the conditions are. Could be a smoke filled arena and you do get a cotton mouth. I mean, so you're out there trying to just string some words together and realize that again, every time you go out there, it's sink or swim. And especially on live TV when that red light's running, that's when I like it the most.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Really. So at the end, toward the end of your career, you've been doing promos for years. Was it. Do you still get nervous? Like I was always, people say, man, you still get nervous. I'm like, hell yeah, still get nervous. I mean, I was always nervous all the way up to the last race. I nervous. Were you still nervous?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah, I think to a degree. But I was so ready. And man, when you're in that mode and that's what you do. I always tell everybody, when you're living in the wrestling life, I mean, you kind of like turn into a zombie, you're going through life, but your job is to be on. You're a road warrior, you're on the road and sometimes you're on the Road strung out so long, you're ready to get back home. As soon as you get back home, you're ready to get back out on the road. You put your suitcases by the washer and dryer, you wash the dirty stuff and get back out and you know, you get back out on the road. It's a nervous energy. You want to go out there and you know, you like the thing I did with Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson goes out there and I say, hey man, I got one time to get this thing right. So there's some nervous energy. But because I was stone cold, I live with Steve Austin now. But you know, back in those days you could get, you could still get some nerves. But the bigger the crowd, the more cameras there was. I thrived on it.

[Podcast Co-host]

How would you get in the mode? What did you do to get in the mode?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Nothing. Like I said, you turn me up to 11. A lot of guys go out there and they're doing push ups, they're putting on baby oil and stuff like that. Or, you know, I've seen guys butt locker, you know, butt their heads on lockers. One of my favorite stories is looking at guys different warm up routines before they went out. And I was talking to a guy and he goes, man, one time I was watching all the guys backstage and the guy I liked the most was Jaco Snake Roberts warm up routine. And I said, why, what'd he do? He goes, well, he had the snake in a bag on top of a trash can and he was smoking a cigarette. And they said, jake, your music's on. So Jake took a drag, last drag out of a cigarette, crushed it with the toe of his boot and walked to the ring. That was the Jake and Snake warm up for me because I was always kind of lily white. We used to tan a lot to try to look cool for television because I was always so ashy. And I wore shorts 24, 7, 365. It didn't matter what state we was in. I always wear shorts so I'd look real ashy. So my routine was wave my arms a couple of times. I may do a couple of pushups, but I'm a pour water all over me just to give me a sheen. And so I didn't look ashy white for camera.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

That's funny.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

That was my warmup routine and I was ready to go.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

So how did Stone cold Steve Austin come about?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Tricky story. I was the ringmaster. I got the phone call. This is back when phones were still on the wall and everybody uses cell Phones these days. And a long cord on that thing so you walk around half a house with it.

[Podcast Co-host]

That was the modern day cell phone.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

That was a cell phone, Yes. I had that maroon phone and the phone rang. I said, hello. I get this voice on the end, Steve, Vince McMahon just started talking right away with the sales pitch. He goes, I want to bring in. And I'd already met with Vince McMahon three times and I could see that they didn't have any interest in me as like a superstar. Me in as what we call in the business, a mechanic. A guy who is very proficient in the ring and can have good matches with anybody. And you need those guys on the crew, right? That's all they had for me. And anyway, they were bring me in as a ring master. The million dollar champion, Ted DiBiase was going to be my manager because Vince hadn't seen me speak yet and thought I was a deaf mute. And so I was going to have a mouthpiece and I didn't like that. But when you got a house payment and a car to pay for, you need the money. So I said, okay, I'll sign up. I did that for. And I knew that there was no future in being the ringmaster. And so I was at the, at the house in my log cabin and I was having a couple and I watched his show on HBO about that serial killer, Richard Kuklinski, who was a hitman over in Chicago, whatever. And I don't endorse nothing the guy did, but the guy was called Iceman because he was very cold blooded and. But I was, I was a heel in the business. I was a bad guy, okay? So it's my job to be hated. So I took that idea and I called the office, I said, hey man, I got this idea. I want to be like a cold blooded, remorseless, a heel. And I told them about the Iceman name. Well, there was a guy in Texas at world class championship wrestling who had already been the Iceman, Iceman King Parsons. Because we don't want to do that. And so they sent me three pages of these horrible names. Fang McFrost, Otto von Rootless and Ice Dagger. And I'm thinking these guys are supposed to be creative geniuses and it's the best they got. And I was like, I threw pages up. I said, my wife at the time was from England and they drink hot tea over there. So she brought me a cup of hot tea and she goes, oh, don't worry about it. Just drink your tea before it gets stone cold. And she said, that's your name. Stone Cold Steve Austin. So I called the office, I pissed it, I said, hey, man, I want to be Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I want to be from Victoria, Texas. And Jerry Briscoe says, all right, I'll run it by Vince and see what he says. So unceremoniously, that's how we came up with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

[Podcast Co-host]

And Vince was receptive immediately. Or did you have to talk him in? Because that's funny. I bet there's a lot of people that call up and go, this is what I want to be called now.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Oh, absolutely. There's a lot of that. But because we knew that the ringmaster wasn't going anywhere. The ringmaster was originally supposed to be, when I look back at some of those prototype drawings of it, you know, this cool, symmetrical outfit. And he was the master of the ring, this technician. I was more of a romp. I'm stomping. I could wrestle technical, but I wasn't that kind of guy. As far as ring gear goes, I was pretty basic. Boots? Some boots, some knee pads and some trunks. And they had this pretty design. And the ringmaster didn't work. There was no genoci quoi to that. You ain't gonna look.

[Podcast Co-host]

Was that one out of Flying Bronze Dictionary?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Did you do that? When you see that? I knew that that name didn't have no marquee value to it. Ringmaster now, all of a sudden, I'll never forget having a conversation with Razor Ramon. It was Scott hall, and I was just starting the Stone Cold thing, and he goes, so what's with the Stone Cold thing, man? What's that all about? He's pretty cool. I love that guy. He's really knowledgeable about the wrestling business. I said, oh, man, just a name change, but it'll work. And, man, I'll never forget, we started doing that.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

And they said, what year was this when you began?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

96 back. 96. And I started getting some promo opportunities and some chances to do a little bit of color. And this is important to that Stone Cold development, because I wasn't there yet. You don't just come up with a name and you're there. It's developing. I don't think anybody here develops into a great race car driver overnight, right? So I noticed this was a period of business when there was a little bit of a lull. So we do Monday Night Raw live one night. Then we'd film the next one the next week, and it'd go to post production, and then they'd play it the next week. And even though we'd filmed it the week before, because you couldn't afford to just do two live nights. And so I noticed when I was watching that show that went to post, they were starting to edit a lot of the stuff I said out of the show. And I'd be at home watching or catch a replay of the broadcast on vcr. I was like, hey, man, I said this then, and they cut it out. So I remember we was up tv, is it Lowell, Massachusetts, or worst or something like that. And I seen Vince walking across the parking lot into the building. And I said, I didn't know Vince very well. I'd been there six, seven, eight months, but I didn't really know him that well. And I said, but you got to take control of your career at some point. So I said, hey, Vince. I said, you got a second? And I didn't put a whole lot of bass in my voice. Hey, yeah, did you want to slaughter yourself up?

[Podcast Co-host]

Scene on first.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I said, hey, man. He goes, here, Steve. And I said, hey, man. I noticed when I'm watching the show back from post, I said, you guys starting to edit a lot of things I'm saying, I said, I wonder why that is. Okay, remember I was supposed to be a bad guy? He goes, quite frankly, Steve, he goes, you're popping a lot of guys in the truck. And what he means by that, when you pop the guys in the truck, that's production truck. Those guys have seen and heard everything. So if I'm eliciting a response from them and they're laughing their ass off, or so much trash, you know, that I was spewing, it's entertaining, those guys, and so that's a good thing. But because it was getting that kind of reaction out of them, he wanted it to be cut out because I was trying to be hated. That was my version of South Texas trash. And I looked at him right there, and I told him, I said, vince, I said, you got guys here, 6, 10, 7ft, 300, 320 pounds. I said, I'm 6, 1 2, 50, black trunks, black boots, bald head, goatee. I said, if you. If you don't give me my personality, I can't compete. But if you give me my personality, I said, I can compete with anybody you got. And he goes, okay, Steve. And that's when he stopped editing me. And that's when he let that South Texas trash fly. And that's when we started heating up, and I really found myself.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Was that when you weren't a Heel anymore.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, I was still a heel. I was a trash talking heel. And there was a version of me really, if you go back to superstar Billy Graham, because Billy Graham was a heel, but he was becoming so entertaining, people started liking him. And then Bob Backlin beat him for the championship and Billy Graham was gone and he kind of, I think it kind of really affected him. But I was a heel still then. But the business was changing and due to the roster guys we had, and we had some great guys, times were changing and I was talking so much trash. Brian Pillman had just came into the WWF at the time and I'd go out there and I'd be working with baby faces and I'd come back from the match and he'd be waiting for me and he'd go, God dang kid, you're a baby face. And I'd say, f you, I'm a heel. But I was getting those kind of cheers. So Vince had the forethought to, hey, you know what? At the time, Bret Hart had been around so long and he's one of my favorites. And he said, you know, Brett's kind of starting to complain a little bit and people are starting to boo him. So he had this big idea to put us in a match in WrestleMania 13. And what we did was go out there. When I went out there, I was pretty much universally received as a heel. But there was a lot of positive response. I got a lot of pops when Brett came out. A lot of pops, some booze, Ken Shamrock, special referee. We went out there and executed one of the rarest things you can do in a professional wrestling match, which is a double turn. By the end of that match, I had went from a heel to a baby. He went from a baby to a heel. Now, understand, nothing happens overnight. There was still work to be done on the back end to further, you know, those paths. But that was what happened. That was the match that really made and launched my career. And I've given Bret Hart so much credit for that because he handpicked me a year earlier to work with him when he's making a comeback from a knee injury. But it was that story. And that's when I started becoming the baby face or the good guy. And I've always preferred working heel because I was going to ask you that. It's so much more comfortable. You can do anything. I mean, and it's kind of fun to make people hate you. It's easier to make people hate you than just like you, I think. And like, if you trip on a stair or the rope's getting in the ring as a baby face, as a good guy, you got egg on your face. If you trip as a heel, the worst they can do is laugh at you and you say, f you. I tried to do that. There's more creative freedom in being a heel.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

That's interesting.

[Podcast Co-host]

I always found that interesting too. I was watching videos of like Jake the Snake and then also like Honky Tonk Man.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Podcast Co-host]

And. And I realized that I think they preferred being a heel. And I always wondered that. Why, why that, why that preference? And now you're just answering it. The creative freedom. But ultimately, do you become champion? Do you become the, you know, the champion and the of, of the long play, the longtime champion as a heel?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

No, no, no. I became the. Really? As a baby face?

[Podcast Co-host]

No, no. I'm saying in general though, is that like people prefer being a heel. What's the.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I think it's all personal. A lot of people love being a good guy.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Okay.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Baby face, we'd say. I mean, so, I mean, you know, and you look at Hulk Hogan, one of the greatest of all time. You know, until he went nwo, he was a baby face his entire life. One of the biggest draws in history of the business. So, yeah, it's all preference. Well, here's the thing. By the time, you know, I turned baby face and become so successful at that, people had kind of forgot about the. That kind of two year heel run. And I was effective as a heel, but I became so beloved as that babyface when we went to WrestleMania 17, Vince always likes to do something special. And I was working with the Rock and we set a new Astrodome attendance record on that pay per view. And I said, hell, man, I said, well, after the match, why don't I turn heel? And so I did turn heel, but it was kind of like, as Jim Ross would put it, you never want to see John Wayne as the bad guy. That's how beloved he was. By the time, you know, I'd become that version of John Wayne, people didn't want to hate me, but I just wanted to do it because I love being heel. I thought it'd be great for the business.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Even when he tried to turn heel, you couldn't.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah, I think that's right. We tried for a long time, but it wasn't a good idea from a business standpoint. And people wanted to love me, they wanted to cheer for me, they wanted to have a good time with me, drink beer and raise hell.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yeah, that's Right. You were one of a kind, so nobody wanted to see you change.

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[Podcast Host Aaron]

For me, there's certainly different eras where the sport peaked. What's the difference between your era. It don't even seem like you retired that long ago. 2003 I guess is a long time ago, but it doesn't seem like it. But describe the peak, which was a huge, huge era for wrestling in your prime to what we have now.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, I think if you look at the peak, it was when Eric Bischoff went down in WCW working for Ted Turner and they decided, hey man, WWF at the time, you know, they got it Monday night Raw. Well, why don't we go head to head and you know, because Kevin Nash, Scott hall, some of those guys have migrated down there he goes, why don't we go head to head with them? And man, that was the Monday night wars. And man, we was throwing everything but the kitchen sink every single Monday night you were getting a main event paper view type card because it was a war. And they kicked our ass for two years. And then finally we started spinning up. I got hot. Here comes the rock taker reinvented himself. DX comes along. Mick Foley heating up. I mean all of a sudden all our iron started heating up and I was leading the charge. I keep it on the DL, but I was leading the charge. I heat up. And man, once we started beating them, we never looked back. And then hell, Vince ended up buying the whole company for pennies on the dollar. And okay, now go to now put Ted Turner out of business. There's a new organization, AEW just started, but right here now, man, ain't no competition, you know, so how good are you without competition? Yeah, 100%. I love competition. And so WCW, I mean, they made us work our ass off to try to get to number one. And, and then it's one thing when you get to number one, but you got to stay there. So we still in a dog fight until they shut them down. So I just think that was still the last days of the wild, wild west. And I love has something to do like introducing a restrictor plate. Guys start to be a little bit more micromanaged. Things had to get a little bit more of a friendly tone, a lot more corporate sponsors coming in. And I'll never forget when I had to leave in 2000 to get my C3,4 fused up because I had some neck injuries. And when I came back, that's kind of when every now and then they start handing you something like this. And this is what you were going to say. Amen. Before that, what I was going to say was, if you're going to talk some trash to me, I'm going to listen you talk that trash and I'm going to go out there and I'm going to answer everything you just said. And we're tearing each other down, but we're building each other up and we're working together. Right. We're trying to sell tickets. It's business. And I don't work from memory. I work from what I feel in my heart, my gut and putting together with my brain.

[Podcast Co-host]

Who was giving you that? Like when you came back and you. And they were trying to script what you say, who is that?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Writers, you know, just like with, with wwe. Yeah.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Okay.

[Podcast Co-host]

So they started trying to write and what does it, what does it look like when Steve Austin doesn't like what you're trying to make him say? What do you say?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, this is hard for, to me, it's hard for someone to try to write. You weren't in South Texas. You weren't hauling, hey, you know, you didn't, you know, have a hard time making it and everything. You know, you didn't have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder. So I don't know if you can achieve that, the attitude of the mindset or, you know, hell, after seven and a half years of paying my dues, finally I'd become an overnight sensation. Well, you weren't there them seven and a half years when I was living on potatoes, pedaling with my pocket knife in a hotel room, you know, struggling to put some damn car in my, some gas in my car. So it's. I don't think you could really encapsulate, you know, what I would say. Or you might know who I was by looking at me. But if you ain't been in the grind with me, I think it's hard for anybody to write for me, and it's hard for me to feel what you may write for me.

[Podcast Co-host]

What'd you just say? I'm not saying that.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, I worked with the system. I'll never forget one time we was at a building and someone came and found me, and I was working a program with Vince, and he said, hey, Vince wants to go to promo with you. And I said, all right. I remember we was in this little bitty room, smaller than this table, half the size of this table.

[Podcast Co-host]

A lot of things are smaller than this table.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I mean, but. But me and Vince and. And I'm sitting there, oh, okay. I'd come back from a neck injury like, okay, Vince, I'm going to rip you to shreds. And. And. And, man, he got mad at me, goes, damn it, Steve, give me your A promo. I said, hey, man, I'm going to give you my A promo out there. Yeah, I'm not a rehearsal guy. I said. I said, so it just. I'll read your bullet points, I'm gonna get a couple of them in there, and then we're gonna fly.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

That's pretty awesome. So you've been. You said you retired in 2003. You had a lot of time to think about it. What do you miss these days?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I don't miss anything because I've been away from it long enough. But when I had to, man, I had to pull a plug on myself. And when I got dropped on my head, I bruised my spinal cord. And there's a lot of neurological issues that I still deal with, with. And it just got to a point where I was just. I was running hard on a personal level. And then I would beat to shreds because I wasn't taking no time off. And you just. It's a hard life. And I tell people these days, hell, if I'd been using some modern training techniques or been drinking protein powder rather than whiskey and beer. Not like I said. But I was a pro wrestler, man. That's all I wanted to be. And I was at a high level level. And I'll never forget when I pull the plug on myself, getting out of the business, it was a hard transition for me. And I've seen a lot of guys get strung out on pain pills. A lot of guys get in IRS trouble or whatever. I'm no smarter than a lot of the guys. When I got out, I didn't really have an exit strategy. And because I had such a hard time dealing with the fact that I was out of business, because I'd gotten pile drive on my head. And for 60 seconds, I was a transient quadriplegic. And when you're laying there in the middle of a ring in front of 20,000 people, live on a pay per view, and you can't move, it scares the out of you. And I was able to finally crawl. There's footage on tv. It was a rough day at the office. I went around all the damn United States, seeing all these different doctors, and finally found a doctor, one of the leading researchers about quadriplegia, Joseph Torg in Philadelphia. And he didn't know the business wasn't work. And I said, hey, doc, I said, I ain't got to take a pile driver every night. He goes, oh, you can control what you do out there? I said, yeah, to a degree, I can control everything. So it cleared me to get back in the ring anyway. So I made it another couple of years. Then I got fused up. I had to ride off in the sunset. But dealing with that, walking away. Retirement always sounds like the R word. Always sounds like the holy grail. You work your ass off because that's what we're here today do, and then you enjoy retirement. Hell, I retired when I was 38, man. You know how much money I left on the table? I mean, not just about the money. It's about the good times. Being with the boys, traveling down the road, being in front of a crowd, getting that adrenaline rush. That's what I lived and breathed. And so I didn't handle it well. And for about three years, I drank, I hunted, and I fished and just did a lot of stupid stuff. And one morning I woke up and I went in the bathroom and I just looked at myself in the mirror. It's a true story. And I didn't say this out loud, but I was thinking to myself, dude, the things you're doing are not conducive to living a long life. You need to slow your ass down and you need to use. I didn't have any designs on being a movie star, nothing like that. But I was driving to forklift before I got into wrestling. But. And as much fun as that was, and I loved it after being on top of the world in the wrestling business, I didn't want to drive forklift again. I said, you better get your ass down there to Los Angeles and Try to do something in the entertainment business and do that. And so, hell, I packed up and moved in with Diamond Dallas Page down there in Los Angeles. Wasted about a year out there still searching for the bottom of a lot of bottles. And we found some people and started. I call them low budget movies. Someone with a big ego would call them independence. Hey, low budget. And, man, I got a chance to host a reality series called Tough Enough for wwe. They reinvented it on USA Network and they say, hey, man, we want you to host this show. And I said, I love it. Because when I first retired, I was so upset that I had to leave the business that I love. I had to be completely away from it. I couldn't even watch it. I didn't want nothing to do with it. If I can't be the main guy, I don't want to be any guy anywhere around all those years later in 2000, I think it was 2009 or 2011 when they did Tough Enough. I had been away long enough, the wounds had healed and I wanted to be closer to the business. I didn't want to be taking bumps, but I wanted to help people learn to trade. So that put me back in touch with the business in a position that I really loved. And after one season, they yanked it. And it did good numbers, but that helped me out a whole lot. And then when I found that, a couple other people contacted me and the last show I did was Broken Skull Challenge and some rocket scientists canceled that. Some. And I still ain't figured that one out right. But I found out that I really enjoyed and through my podcast, talking to people and shooting the breeze on the fly.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Does Vince ever call or has he ever called over the last 15 years with ideas of how to incorporate you back into the system? Maybe not as taking bumps as you say, but being a part of the program.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

No. I mean, yeah, yes and no. But I said I kind of wanted to do my own thing for a while. And here's a classic example. It's a true story. And I was over at. We used to do a stone cold podcast and I was in Denver, Colorado, and they said, hey man, want to see if you wanted to open the show? And I said, sure, man, I'll open Monday night. Rallo. And he goes, well, we got four things we want you to say. And they hand me that piece of paper. And I was like, this is what you want me to say? You bring me back after I don't know how many years in front of 20,000 and a couple million out there in TV land I like. All right, so I went out there and said it, but it was like, I can't work off paper. And I really think that the wrestling business, guys like me, good to have around in a special occasion or whatever to talk to people about the fine details of what we call in the business getting over that secret to becoming hot as a heel or hot as a baby into a money drawing position. There's knowledge I have or Hulk has or Flair has, but in the system, man, it's for the young cats. They need all the television time they can get. They ain't gonna monetize me by just bringing me out to a house show here or there. So they gotta put the money. The other thing is kind of with you, you like developing drivers. So I like to watch the talent develop. And I had my time and I want them to have their time.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

So you're following along with what's going on now?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Currently I try to. I DVR both shows, but I don't watch a whole lot of television to begin with. Yeah, you know, I'm a big football fan and UFC fan and, and I DVR both shows because if someone says, hey man, check us out, or someone wants to ask me something to get my opinion on it, right, well, I've got it dialed up, so then I watch it.

[Podcast Co-host]

Hey, I got a question with, with, with you sort of taking on this role of trying to help some of these younger wrestlers. Do you try to give them advice as far as planning their end or their exit already? Because it sounds like to me that you, you hadn't even thought about it. Injuries sort of took you down that road maybe if you weren't ready. Is that something you try to help people understand and maybe prepare for better?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Oh, absolutely. Because what do you tell them? Well, just giving a platform. Right. Right now I just, hey, man, if you're trying to do anything, you know, always keep your, you know, your, your loyalty and your main job is with wwe. But if you've got some feelers out there and you're trying to network other things, you know, based on the fact that you've got a high IQ rating or a lot of television exposure and you, you can get your hands into different things, do it, do it. But you know, right now, this is your bread and butter. But start planting those seeds right now so when you spin out of this, you come out with momentum. Like I said, I sidetracked my. I'm just completely honest. I sidetracked myself. Three years of nothing and Then came out to la. Had I said, hey, I'm going to go do this, I could have planned it a lot better.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

I would compare the history of wrestling as far as superstars with another popular show that's long running and that's Saturday Night Live. Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, you got Ric Flair, the superstars that have sort of carried that show through the decades. Who is the superstar in today's climate? Who is the next Stone Cold? Who is the next guy that's going to be the household name?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Mass, tough question to answer right now.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Do you see those guys in this current climate?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

If, if key thing, when I got hot, I pushed the envelope and I was saying words you could still say on television. I wasn't dropping f bombs. I knew what I could get away with. The deal was I wasn't afraid to push the envelope. I wasn't afraid to go out on a limb. So I did. And I knew I had to. And it was in me. It was nothing. I had to, hey, this is a crazy idea. When you turn me up to 11, that's. And like I said, man, growing up in South Texas, just talking that trash. So to answer your question, you know, I had no restrictor plate on me.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

You know, like the guys today do.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah, I just could. Like I said, it's a way more friendly setting and there's a lot more control on television than when back in the day, I mean, because, you know, we could do the. Hey, I went to Brian Pillman's house one time, he had a busted leg from wrecking his Humvee and I broke in his house with a baseball bat and he pulled a gun on me on Monday Night Raw. And then shots were fired and I don't think the network wasn't rehearsed at all. Oh, hell no. I beat the hell out of two guys in his driveway. And when that gun went, you know, there were reports that shots were fired. There was a call from the network and there was some explaining to be done, but we had done it and you know, hey, then we apologize. My point is I don't know that anybody can push that envelope as hard as we did. And I really think that's what it is, is. And again I go to. It's like the people that love you, there's something about you and you driving and now you're doing your broadcast and that just people loved you, you were real and you affected their emotions and they got behind you and that's the same thing in our business. But you got to do something to resonate with those people and to get that kind of relationship. Anything you do, it's all about relationships. Even though you're an entertainer, you have a relationship with those fans and those fans got to live vicariously. I've talked to so many people through all the stuff that Stone Cold Steve Austin was doing and they might have been in a bad way or had some problems going against them or whatever, and they turn on that tv. And when you're in the entertainment business, if you can make somebody forget about their problems for about two hours and put a smile on their face and get that adrenaline going, that's a good thing. And so I just think it'll take someone just to be able to capture that audience again. I ain't saying you got to go crazy, just got to turn them loose a little bit.

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[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

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[Podcast Host Aaron]

There's a, as a Redskins fan, there's a play or a game that's, that's on the top of the list for me. Do you have a moment in your career or even maybe not in your career, maybe it's in someone else's career that you, that you think some most memorable moment for you, Your favorite moment, your favorite match?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Well, yeah, yeah, my favorite. I loved working with the Rock and WrestleMania 17 was a hell of a ride. But that WrestleMania. And I love working with Vince because the Vince feud transcended wrestling for two years. That was water cooler talk. I don't care what you did at lunch. You met and you asked, hey man, you see what Stone Cold and Vince did last night? And Vince was an awesome opponent because he feels this stuff as much as I do. He's an animal. He's one of the most interesting people I've ever met in my life. And I love a guy. But to answer your question, that match in WrestleMania 13, I knew we had those people from Jump Street. I dived on him, started whipping his ass and then we go into a barricade. I start bleeding like a stuck pig. And finally after a couple of attempts, he turns me over to that sharpshooter. And I'm laying there and I'm in the push up position and I am trying to escape. And we loved working Chicago, Rose Mountain, Horizon, because, first of all, the fans are terrific. And the acoustics in that building, the acoustics in that building, that's a wooden ceiling. So it's like when they yell, it's kind of like hitting the gas pedal. You get an immediate response. Everything you do in that ring is driven by response. And so, man, those people are just quick. And so we had that crowd hook, line, and sinker, and I was going to pass out in a pool of blood. Gotten the finish, Got the finish earlier from Vince. The pool of blood was not planned until later by two individuals, but there was a no color policy in effect. And I was laying there bleeding like a stuck pig. And I'll never forget, to answer your question, that moment was finishing that match, executing the double turn, and laying there, Man, I bled like a stuck pig. I was in a puddle of blood. You never want to hit something that's gory. But it was an extended period of time laying there passed out while him and Shamrock were going to take care of business. And I had to just perform my ass off. Worked my ass off. So did Brett, and he really brought it that match, laying there in that pool of blood with my eyes closed because that was all I had to do until both those guys got out of the ring, and then I'd get up and it was my idea to stun the referee because I said I still got to just, if someone's going to try to help me, I'm not just going to start hugging on him. And thank you for helping me up. I'm still a rattlesnake laying in that pool of blood. Most satisfying moment in, in my entire wrestling career.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Awesome.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah. Hey, I got a question. Who was the best? Who did you enjoy wrestling with and performing with the most in the, in the lens of. You trusted them. Because I realized with the interviews with, that I've seen with other wrestlers, that you have your life in their hands and vice versa.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Versa.

[Podcast Co-host]

Okay. So not who was the best performer for the crowd, but who was the best to wrestle with in that you, you could trust them, and y' all could put on a show and protect each other.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

There, there's a, there's a lot of guys like that, and you, you hit the nail right on the head. I, I, I recently was entering, and we was hitting the ropes pretty damn hard, and the people standing around were like, holy. I didn't, I didn't know you guys are moving that fast or the things happened in that ring so violently. I said, I said, yeah, man, it ain't ballet. I loved working with Bret Hart. There was so much trust and respect. And like I said, the high profile matches I've had with Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, I mean, the Mankind, the list could be a mile long. But if I got to give you one guy, you know, Brett hit Manheart. Yeah, he was just awesome. And there was a trust and respect there from day one. And he saw me coming up and you know, he had taken a year off to get, or not a year, but some time off to get a knee cleaned up. And he picked me as his opponent to come back. I think it was in the garden for the Survivor Series match. And that helped me before we would end up feuding, what a year later.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

So Bret Hart, he talked about landing that pool of blood when I was a boy and would watch Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes and all those guys wrestle and man, they blew up, bled every. They bled on a Monday regular show. And I always thought as a boy, like, how does that process? Like, how do you get so comfortable with, man, I'm cutting tonight. And do they is. I mean, obviously that might be pre planned. They know that that's going to happen. How do you get yourself mentally there to do that repeatedly time and time and time again? Because for me that was probably the most, most. It's obviously visually shocking, you know, when you're watching a match and there's just blood everywhere and those guys, especially back in those days, were just bleeding hard.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Covered.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And you remember that, right?

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yes. And, and as a wrestler, like somebody. When you're. When do you remember the first time you, you bled?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Oh, man. But, but to answer your question, I mean, to go back towards saying, yeah, it's the exclamation point right. On a, on a great feud. And it's like, hey, man, it turned into a bloodbath. But I'll tell you, I went to wrestling school. I was in there for about five months, one day a week. There was 25 kids in class. We had one ring, so ring time is pretty limited. Okay, so you learn a bit of chain wrestling, you learn how to take a bump, you just learn how to fall and protect yourself. And part of the 101 and the 201 class ain't, well, here's how you get comfortable. No one teaches you. That's what it's called, get color, a little juice. All of a sudden, man, we was in Dallas and there was going to be a match. Eric Emory was booking. I think it was about, no, the first time Was in Tennessee. Anyway, I was in a locker room and I think it was Jerry Lawler or somebody. I said it might have been Chris Adams. I said, hey, man, someone told me we was going to go out there and like a big battle roll type thing and bleed. And as a new guy in the business, I hadn't even been in a year. Now all of a sudden somebody wants me to bleed. Well, okay, what's the process? So I asked one of the guys said, man, how do you make a blade? And the guy showed me his technique. And then, you know, you know, like those old school razors, the old ones, right? You know, double sided. Yeah, double sided. Clip that thing in the middle and then, you know, get some corners and make a small thing, push it through a piece of tape, you know, so you got a pull tab and, you know, put it on your wrist. Some guys are carrying their mouth, some guys in their waistband. But me, if it was a big. If it was a big pay per view, man, you know, I got plan A, I got plan B, and I got plan C. So I'm out there with three options. Yeah. And so, you know, it's a very interesting feeling when you first push that, that blade into your head because there's like a crackle of that skin and then you're going to drag just a little bit.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Oh, man.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And at first, you know, you're kind of like, man, this is like a rite of passage, though. You're expected to do it because you grew up seeing it. And all of a sudden now you get a chance to do it. And then all of a sudden, you know, it was like in the 90s, so, you know, trading blood with a lot of people. And some of these guys, you know, were party animals. It's like, man, you think those guys got to be the dumbest people in the world. And like the guy, you know, the guy that always bite on the open cut and then spit the blood out.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yes.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I was like, holy.

[Podcast Co-host]

I would imagine you're right. There's some people that I would just be like, I don't want to color juice with you tonight.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

There were no guys. There were those guys. Those guys that were like, really out there.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yeah.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And the thing about it is, man, when you get out on that mat, some of those outdoor shows, that mat is so hot. I know. It's like we did some roto rain at Bakersfield. Bakersfield, California. Know you been there. So it's so hot that the mat's about 120 degrees. It's hard to lay there just for a three count, man, guys are kicking out. But when you get some of those arenas like the Sportatorium in Dallas, that building was so. The wrestling atmosphere was so thick here. And when you know the Carolinas, I mean, the wrestling is hot here, especially Ric Flair territory, Four horsemen, crockets. So that mat, just like, you know, you got metal construction, some 2x12s, a little bit of a mat about like that. And you got the tarp, but on top of that tarp, man, guys been walking around in a dressing room. I mean, you drink your coffee, maybe you got to take care of business or you're at the urinal, you're taking care of business, and all of a sudden you walk into the ring so it smells like stale beer, popcorn, piss, sweat, and then you got blood on top of it. It's like any night of the week you get staph infections has got to be one of the most unsanitary places to roll around with another guy and get sweated on or bleed it on. I just invented bleeding. Yeah, you bleeded.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

I am. I'm so glad you answered that for me because I think that was probably the number one question on my list ever since I've been a little boy about wrestling, as to how that process goes for somebody. And you answered it perfectly. You talked about, about mankind. This is a guy from our vantage point that sacrificed himself more than anybody. We're all wrestlers like that. Or was he just someone special?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I think, I think he knew that was going to be his.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

He had to.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I don't think he had to. I don't think. Well, Mick gets a lot of credit because he's one of my best friends in the business and we travel together. We're two of the cheapest guys in the history of the business as far as saving our money, staying at box hotels, stuff like that. I don't think, I think he did it because he knew that he wasn't going to be a certain, wasn't going to be a high flyer, a mat technician. And I think he, to a point, enjoyed the pain. And I'll never forget, man, that floor in Dallas, Texas, was that hardwood floor. It's probably harder than any concrete I've walked on. And I'll never forget from my early days when he got into business just a couple years before I did. And I was out there in the crowd drinking beer with my football playing buddies and we was out there drinking beer, throwing stuff at wrestlers and he dropped that elbow from apron onto that floor and. Or get suplexed out on that seam, man. And just, you know, when the Undertaker threw him off that cage in that. Into that. The hell in the cell in that announce desk, I think he did it because it was a means to an end and it was a style that worked for him. And so a lot of people didn't think Mick Foley's one of the smartest guys in the business.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

That's what they said.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And I think that was his calling card, to answer your question.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

That's awesome.

[Podcast Co-host]

Hey, when did the beer, the beer bashing start? And. And because that became so iconic, just the imagery of that, it was part of your identity in a big way. When did that start? And. And how did you keep that going? Was it even that hard, too?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I can't remember exactly when we started it, and I didn't invent it. Sandman was doing his version of it in ecw and. And when I did it, I wasn't saying, hey, the Sandman did this. I'm going to copy. I just. It organically happened. I don't know if I grabbed a couple of beers out of audience or. I just figured, hey, man, you like to drink beer so much, you know, because we'd have that cooler full of beer underneath that, that announce table. Or Mark Eaton used to throw me those beers. But, you know, Sandman would crush him off his head. I would just bang, clack them together like that. And, you know, people would say, man, Steve always got mad at you because you wasted all that beer. And I say, like, they don't understand, man. You ain't in show business. You don't get it. Half goes in, that's for me, half goes on, that's for everybody else. It's a win, win situation. You got to have some showmanship to it. What about a clack? Two beers together and just sipped them wouldn't be worth the flying.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah, plus. Plus you wouldn't have had the beer on the petri dish. It was called the mat that you. That you.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

I would kind of sanitized it. Yeah, you kind of. I used to tell people, dale, by the time I got finished, I was so beat to shreds, I told people, hell, I was drinking for a living and wrestling on the side. Do you still drink beer? Yeah. I got into the beer business. I drank light beer for, hell, 30, however many years it's been. And I finally started all this craft beer stuff started springing up and I said, oh, man, let me give this stuff a try. Because back then he was kind of considered a Snob. If you wasn't drinking the regular beer, everybody else was. And hell, you know, back in the day, when you're drinking Schaeffer, hell, that's all he can afford. So I started drinking a pale ales. It's pretty good. I tried my first ipa. It was a little too much. And I went back to the pale ale and I said, hey, man, I miss that hop on that IPA. So I really got into the IPAs and I teamed up with El Segundo Brewing Company to get in the beer market. So I have broken skull IPA. It's a 6.7% alcohol, 40 IBUs. And that beer is handcrafted by myself and the owner, Rob Crocsol, to my specifications. And I think it's one of the best. I'm very partial, but that built was built for me. It's one of the best IPAs in America and so I'm very proud of that beer.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

What's coming next for Stone Cold?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

You know, hopefully we do a good job on this show. And we got seven to start off with.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

And do you know who all your guests are? You don't have to give them away if you don't want to, but you got some pretty cool.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah, yeah, I have some really, really cool guests. And you're one the of of them. And I look at it like this. I mean, either we're going to get to do seven of them or we'll do 28 of them or 56. But we got seven. And I'm looking forward to them, Aaron, and hopefully they do well. I love talking to people. I love talking with you guys. And it gives me a chance to get back out on the road, do cool stuff that I wouldn't get a chance to do otherwise. And I'm probably going to spring back up and kick my podcast back into gear. I had to take care of a few things. I took myself off the air for a while, got everything straightened out. So I'll make a return into that. And I continue my ventures in the beer business, the pocket knife business.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Still hunting?

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Oh, I'm still hunting. Oh, man. Different. And I enjoy my. I'm in business with Kawasaki Motorsports as a brand ambassador and I love doing that. That's one of the best things I got. Hunting has been really good because do we still got time?

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yeah.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Okay. So back when I had the ranch in Texas, we had that place for 10 years. And you know, in south Texas, everybody's high fence because everybody's trying to grow a big ass deer. Okay. And you don't want your neighbors shooting your deer. Okay, well, we did that for 10 years and we had some monster deer and we was feeding protein 247 on top of all the protein they already got to eat. And so we were raising those deers, culling and you know, rarely shooting trophies because we're growing, we're looking long term, we're playing a long game like you like to say. And it got to be such a process. We had an awesome setup out there. Had a double wide hooked to a triple wide with this 2000 square foot man cave. You talk about super redneck, but it was cool. And over at the barn was our cooler. But during the cold process, man, you're taking out your undesirables. You got to control the population because they're in a 2,000 acre rectangle. And all the culling, all the does, you got to do that. And man, after doing that for 10 years, what I love now you're not hunting over bait in Nevada. That's where I hunt now. I could go anywhere in the United States and hunt. I get a lot of invites, but I'm a hermit and I just like to stay in my own territory. My brother in law is probably the best guy in Nevada and knows the entire state like the back of his hand. It's uncanny. So you're out there, free range. I drew my first tag this year for mule deer. My previous years I'd bought landowner tags. I had a landowner antelope tag this year and was successful. My first year out there, I shot a big ass 175 mule deer. And I was just, I was like, hey man, it happened on first day. I said, hey man, it's going to be pretty easy. This past season, first day out there, we saw a buck, it's probably about a 150 buck. And I, man, I wouldn't even give him the time of day. I said, no, man, I'll pass. We got four more days to do this. If you see something out there that's like that, that's in that ballpark, you better take him. And you don't want to take a young buck for no reason because you don't do. And so I got smoked. And so that was a landowner tag over there, cost $4,000. I just got a $4,000 lesson in how not to get some meat in the freezer. And when I talk about deer hunting because it's something that I love and I grew up doing, we eat every single thing we take and what we can't eat ourselves we donate to food banks. And the good thing about hunting in Nevada is I'm just taking one animal. I'm taking one deer and one antelope. And my wife is a vegetarian. Vegetarian. First vegetarian I ever met in my life. She has him. We used to go down to South Texas and try to go through. We'd go through McDonald's, order a Mac veggie burger because they got them in LA down in South Texas. Like, what in the hell are you talking about? Do you just not want us to put the meat in there?

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Right.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah, like an air burger. Lettuce and bread. Air burger. So, you know, I get two deer to eat and, and realistically, I mean, how much more can you eat? I eat a lot of chicken breast stuff like. Like at.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Sir. I got a place in Ohio and bow hunting only.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

And we love it. You're. You're welcome to come anytime. We do the same thing. We, we eat what we. What we kill and donate what we don't keep. And it's a lot of fun. I've been, I've had that place, we've owned it, me and a friend of mine for probably five years. I got one buck off of it so far. You just out there just enjoy. I enjoy the managing and, you know, culling and getting things where you want them and growing the population and seeing the same deer every year and watching them grow and do. And a lot of fun learning about just trying, you know, firing up your food plots and moving, moving things around and how that all works. It's pretty interesting. So.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And Ohio has good deer. They do have real good deer. Yeah. You ever heard the, you know that. The hole in the horn buck? No, that's a famous buck from Ohio. I guess maybe someone has shot a hole in one of his horns with the.22, but. But it was found dead on side of a railroad track or the railroad. So no person killed him. He died of whatever causes. But research the hole in the horn buck, because if I'm not mistaken, that is an Ohio buck.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Nice. Well, man, I'm going to hang out with you the rest of the day because we're going to film your show and I appreciate you coming out here doing our podcast. You're a legend, somebody I was a huge fan of. We got a lot of people that are listening to our show that are huge fans of yours. They're going to love this podcast. Look forward to the rest of the day and thank you.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Hey, man, it was good being here and you know, as many times we got a chance to shake hands on the infield. We never got a chance to talk because you were fixing to go out there and do business and I was going to go drop a flag or whatever. So I've enjoyed being on the podcast. Obviously. Big fan of, you know, all the, the Earnhardt racing stuff.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Yes, sir.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

And it's going to be good spending the day with you.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

Absolutely. Thank you, Steve.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host Aaron]

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