Steve Austin Says WrestleMania 32 May Have Been His Last; Talks Almost Vetoing Dancing With New Day
On episode 80 of You're Welcome With Chael Sonnen, WWE Hall Of Famer 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin talked about WrestleMania 32 possibly being his last, being pitched the idea of dancing with The New Day at 'The Showcase Of The Immortals', and WWE talent being too manufactured nowadays.
Although Austin expressed some disappointment over his WrestleMania 32 segment, he admitted he was happy to be performing in front of the Dallas, TX crowd. Also, 'The Bionic Redneck' claimed that WrestleMania 32 may have been his final appearance in a WWE ring.
"It was good to go down there [to Dallas, TX for WrestleMania 32]. The situation could have been a little cooler. It was fun to do business with those guys, but the crowd was outstanding. I hope everybody had a good time. I don't know when the next time I'll ever hit a WWE ring will ever be again. That might have been the last time. And I wanted to be there in Dallas, TX at [WrestleMania] 32. Minor capacity because I never announced my retirement, but I kind of consider myself retired. So to go out in front of 97,000 or 101,000 people, however many [WWE] said that it was, that's the city I started my [professional] wrestling career in, wrestling at the world famous Sportatorium, so it was a great time."
As for The New Day, Austin expressed his appreciation for the group before divulging that he nearly vetoed the dancing segment at WrestleMania 32. According to Austin, he did not think that the 'Stone Cold' character would have danced with The New Day, but 'The Texas Rattlesnake' realized that teasing the dance would only further hook the audience before delivering a Stunner to Xavier Woods.
"I love all those guys from New Day and they're very charismatic and very entertaining together, more so as a trio than as individuals. They all have individual money written on them, but I just think they got a great gig going on. Sometimes, it's a bit juvenile, but I really like those guys. So Xavier, we always kid around backstage. I'll throw an elbow at him or whatever and just kind of mess with him. And so, we were talking about doing the dance scene because he was going to be one of the guys to take a Stunner. And they were selling me this and I was thinking, 'okay, well, 'Stone Cold' don't dance'. I could sit there and just look at him the way 'Stone Cold' does that look or that I could just bait him in a little bit by saying, 'okay, yeah, I get it, I get it'. So actually, they were pitching me this. I was going to shoot it down, but then I said, 'you know what? It's WrestleMania. It's going to make the pop bigger if I let him get me into it and they think 'okay' because [the fans] know what's coming. They know what's coming. And so, you expand the 'Stone Cold' character to another level. It goes with a basic one-step, two-step kind of a thing, which is about all I'm capable of for a shoot and then you hit him with a Stunner after he does a spin. It was the icing on the cake."
Also, Austin stated that today's WWE talents are too paint-by-numbers and they would really benefit from more creative freedom.
"They're manufactured, micromanaged, they're too produced, and it's not organic. And so you can start with Roman Reigns and you can trickle that down to 99% of the roster, other than the Bray Wyatts of the world and they're getting the same results. I would predict that almost the whole card would be more over than they already are due to how they're booked if they would let these damn kids express themselves for a shoot!"
Click here to listen to the podcast. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit You're Welcome with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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