Steve Austin On WWE And AEW Competing With Each Other
WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to promote Sunday's post-Survivor Series premiere of his new "Broken Skull Sessions" interview series on the WWE Network. The two-hour long premiere will feature The Undertaker.
Austin is also producing the show. He told SI that he's enjoying every part of the process, including the naming of the show.
"I didn't want to call it the 'Stone Cold podcast,'" Austin said. "In theory it's like a podcast, but it's not. We're doing this right here in my studio in Los Angeles, and the show's name is more personal.
"The reason 'Broken Skull' came about ties back to when I had my ranch back in South Texas. I called it the 'Broken Skull Ranch,' and I'd always wanted my whole life to own a ranch. In order to finally buy one, I literally had to break my skull in the business of pro wrestling to do that. So it became the 'Broken Skull Ranch.' I'm still 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, I'm still that guy, but WWE owns 'Stone Cold.' I liked the sound of the Broken Skull Sessions. We're here at my place and we're getting inside people's skulls, so it just made sense. That's how it came to be."
Austin also noted that the new "Broken Skull Sessions" show was created after WWE reached out to him. He said there are more episodes planned, but they have to do numbers to keep everyone interested.
"I was so happy WWE reached out to me and pitched this show to me," Austin said. "If the show does great numbers, I'll do it for as long as I can do it. If the show doesn't do any numbers and I s— the bed, they'll say, 'Hey Steve, we'll catch you down the road.' I really believe that's how it's going to happen. There are going to be more episodes, for sure, but they've got to perform to keep doing more."
Austin indicated that this will be a monthly series on the Network.
Regarding All Elite Wrestling, Stone Cold said he's watched them closely and has also paid attention to the WWE NXT vs. AEW competition on Wednesdays. Austin talked about how competition helped WWE and Vince McMahon during the Monday Night Wars.
"Without competition, who knows what would have happened in my career?who knows what will come out of Wednesday nights, but I believe in competition," Austin said. "I know AEW is doing their thing and they say they're not competition, and WWE might say it's not competition, but if it's on across from each other, it's competition.
"I remember when WCW's Nitro kicked our ass for two years in the 'Monday Night Wars.' I couldn't believe it, I thought our show was better, but they kept winning. Finally, we started turning the tide when everybody got so hot. The fact that we had competition, man, that made everybody push the envelope. I certainly wasn't afraid to push the envelope, and I did. I'm thankful for the 'Monday Night Wars.' They helped define me. They helped Vince, and it helped us go out on a limb with some of the crazy stuff we did in our feud that became water-cooler talk and transcend the business."