Jim Ross and Steve Austin are both WWE Hall of Famers, and they also happen to be friends. Austin and Ross have known each other for a long time, and they’ve been through the good times and the bad times.
During The Attitude Era, Steve Austin was the top star in WWE, and there are many out there who would argue that Austin was the greatest WWE Superstar of all time.
As the top star Steve Austin consistently wrestled in the main event on TV and at WWE live events. However, during a recent appearance on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Ross shared a story about a time when Austin was booked lower on the card, and he also revealed that Austin did not react well to his placement.
Jim Ross explained that he was simply trying to give Steve Austin a bit of a break by helping him get on the road a little earlier, but Austin made it clear that he wanted to go on last.
“We had a very competitive group.” Ross said, “everybody wanted to be the top dog. Everybody took pride in being the guy. I booked Austin one time in a tag match to give him a break on a Saturday night before TV, a Sunday night, excuse me, on the west coast. I put him in a tag match at Vince’s suggestion and I put him on right before intermission. So he goes out and gets to the town and Blackjack Lanza is the road agent, so Lanza calls me on the phone, which was very common, go over the plans for the night creatively on the live events, and he goes, ‘I’ve got Austin here for you.’ He handed Austin the phone and after he got done over modulating on my phone and cussing, I figured out that A) he didn’t like tag matches and B) he couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t going on last. And I said, ‘well, I thought the tag match would give you something of a break instead of carrying the whole load and going on before intermission would get you on the road earlier.’ I said, ‘you’ve got a big night at RAW the next night and it’s an early night because we’re on west coast time.’ And he gave me, ‘man, I worked my entire G.D. life for this, to be a top guy, and not have to do that and I want to go on last. That’s what top guys do.’ And that was him! That was the way some talents were.”
There’s no denying that Steve Austin was passionate about his wrestling career, and his passion definitely paid off as he’s one of the most recognizable names in the history of the business.
H/T to Wrestling Inc
