When Stone Cold Steve Austin took his ball and went home in 2002 it left a huge hole in WWE. The man Vince McMahon helped shape into the biggest drawing name in pro wresting just decided to quit on WWE because he didn’t like where they were taking his character.
Austin’s health was also declining too, which didn’t help. On a recent episode of Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard, Bruce and Conrad Thompson went into nearly every aspect of the ordeal in a three-hour broadcast.
Bruce was asked what WWE’s locker room leader The Undertaker thought about Steve Austin deciding to walk out of the company and Prichard gave an answer we should have expected.
“[Undertaker was] pissed off. I think everybody there was just pissed off and upset cause, you know. They felt like he walked out on them,” Prichard said.
A lot of the legend has to do with the fact Vince McMahon wanted Brock Lesnar to beat Austin in an opening round match for the King Of The Ring. They wanted to beat Stone Cold clean with no promotion or build up. Austin was said to be upset with the creative plans and went home with his then-wife Debra instead.
Bruce Prichard was asked how Brock Lesnar felt about Steve Austin saying he wasn’t going to do the favor for Lesnar like that and Bruce replied by saying Brock Lesnar had no idea about the situation at all.
“Well Brock had no idea. Brock had no idea of the proposed match or that he was supposed to go over Steve or anything. So I don’t know if Brock had any reaction whatsoever because it never got to that point with him. They had pitched Steve and Vince was still going back and forth with Steve at that point. I’m sure Paul probably let Brock know what the proposed match was, but no I don’t think Brock was anywhere in a point of — I don’t wanna say not caring one way or another but it wasn’t to that point for it to matter.”
It is a shame Stone Cold walked out when he did. He came back later, but fans still missed out on an amazing feud between Steve Austin and Eddie Guerrero.
As damaged as the relationship between Steve Austin and WWE got at that point it still wasn’t enough to totally burn the bridge. That is a very good thing too.
If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard with a H/T to Still Real To US for the transcription.
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