Steve Austin Reveals Request From Vince McMahon That He Refused

Steve Austin is one of the biggest names to ever step foot in the ring and during the Attitude Era he climbed to the top of WWE and made a name for himself. Austin’s catchphrases helped to get him there and he also became synonymous with flipping the bird during that era.

Recently Steve Austin spoke to Sportskeeda about his infamous middle finger salute while noting that Vince McMahon wanted him to come up with a different hand gesture, but he refused.

“It just turns out that the timing was right when I did it. And they asked me not to do it, but I said, ‘No, I’m gonna do it.’ They wanted me to come up with a whole different hand signal. Vince did, specifically, because Diamond Dallas Page was giving the diamond [hand signal], right? And everybody would go like that [hands raised] with it.”

“He goes, ‘Can you come up with a different signal that everybody else can do?’ I looked him dead in the eyes and said, ‘No.’ And I kept flying the middle fingers and we kept climbing up, we started whipping their [WCW’s] a** in the ratings, and we had a hell of a crew, and one thing led to another.”

In the end it seems that Austin made the move by going against Vince McMahon’s wishes. Earlier this year Austin shocked the world when he came out of retirement at WrestleMania and defeated Kevin Owens in the main event of night one. He then went on to stun Vince McMahon during night two, and he’s indicated that he’ll make an appearance at WrestleMania next year if he gets the call.