Steve Austin On Vince McMahon Convincing Donald Trump To Take The Stunner

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on Friday, and he’s the first WWE Hall of Famer in history to become President. Donald Trump has appeared on WWE programming several times over the years, and at WrestleMania 23 in 2007, Donald Trump got physical when he attacked Vince McMahon and took a Stone Cold Stunner from Steve Austin.

Steve Austin recently spoke to Complex about his career, his podcast and more, and he revealed what was going on backstage while the Battle of the Billionaires was being put together for WrestleMania 23. According to Austin it was Vince McMahon’s idea for Donald Trump to get hit with the Stunner, and Trump agreed to do it, despite the fact that his right hand man was trying to talk him out of it.

“Vince says to me, ‘Steve, I’m going to see if I can get Donald to take the Stunner,’” Austin recalls. “I said, ‘you think?’ He says, ‘Oh yeah, it’ll be great, it’ll be great.’ He goes up to Donald and says, ‘Hey Donald, this is Stone Cold Steve Austin.’ I shook Donald’s hand. He goes, ‘Listen, I want to know if after the match, when everything is done, if Steve could hit the Stone Cold Stunner on you.’ Donald says, ‘You think it’d be a good thing?’ and Vince goes, ‘Oh, of course it would be. It would just blow the roof off the place.’ And Donald’s right hand guy was saying, ‘No, no, no! You don’t need to do this, we got other things to do!’ He’s trying to talk him out of it. And Donald says to Vince, ‘You think it’ll help?’ and Vince goes, ‘I promise you it’ll help.’ And Donald says, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’

Not only is Donald Trump the first WWE Hall of Famer to become President of the United States, but he’s also the first President to sell a Stone Cold Stunner at WrestleMania. Whether or not he sold it well is up for debate.

Austin himself feels that it “wasn’t a picture-perfect stunner,” but he gave Donald Trump credit for giving it a shot.

Don’t look for Donald Trump to make an appearance at WrestleMania this year, as it looks like he’s booked solid for the next four years.