• Steve Austin Comments On If ‘Stone Cold’ Would’ve Gotten Over With Long Hair
During a recent edition of The Steve Austin Show, WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin discussed whether ‘Stone Cold’ would have gotten over if he had long hair, if Dusty Rhodes would have gotten over in today’s PG Era & more.
Below are the highlights:
On whether ‘Stone Cold’ would have gotten over if he had long hair:
“Hell no. I’ll tell you what, man, back in the day, when you broke into the business of pro wrestling, I broke in in 1990, I was the [Wrestling Observer] Rookie Of The Year. Back in the day, all the wrestlers had mullets, they had long hair. That was a thing. They had to have long hair if he was going to be a pro wrestler. I thought the same damn thing. I remember going through the phases of haircuts in WCW. I go back, I still look at my Twitter account these days and I’ll see these people, they send me pictures of my ‘Stunning’ Steve days with Col. Bob Parker or these other incarnations or styles I was going through and [sighs] I looked like s***. I had beautiful hair back in the day, but I was starting to lose it at the age of 23 or 24.”
On if he and late Dusty Rhodes would have gotten over in today’s PG era:
“It’s a tough a$$ business, man. Even getting an opportunity, especially in 2018 and moving into the future. Some of the guys who don’t really have bodies, I don’t know if they’ll even get a shot at the business. Look at Dusty Rhodes, one of the greatest of all-time, one of the reasons I got in the business was Dusty Rhodes, and if Dusty Rhodes came along in today’s business… It’s funny to think, people always ask me, ‘hey man, would ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin have gotten over in today’s PG landscape?’ Well, hell yeah, I would have. It’s intensity and it’s talent and that’s the bottom line. I don’t need [any] cuss words. I’d get over.
My ring style with my ring presence and that would have gone with any era that has ever been in the wrestling business. But Dusty, just because he, first of all, Dusty could work his a$$ off. Everybody knows that. And he was hands down one of the single best talkers in the history of the business, bar none. The guy was magic on the microphone and there was just this likability factor to him. You could identify with him 100%. ‘The Working Man’, ‘The Blue Collar Guy’, ‘The American Dream’, but if you just looked at him, from a physicality standpoint, and if you’re a ‘body guy’, I don’t know if Dusty gets a shot.”
• Big Name Leaving WWE Next Year?
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, two time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair talked about his daughter Charlotte Flair possibly facing Ronda Rousey, him not facing Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania & more.
During the interview, Flair also hinted that Ronda Rousey might be done with WWE next year. Below are the highlights:
On Charlotte Flair facing Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 35:
“In my humble opinion, if Rousey wants to elevate her status in the company she needs to go through The Queen and The Queen ain’t afraid of her, I got news for ya. I just saw her deadlift 315 lbs and she can bench 205 lbs for 6 reps. She is gifted beyond belief. I’m not involved obviously in any of the thinking but if they’re ever going to put the women where they belong, this is the year because I think Ronda has only signed a one-year deal and then she wants to get out of there. She wants to have kids and all that. She just needs to be be prepared to lose. Not if sure if Ronda likes that.”
On why he never faced Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania:
“I had no idea I was going to win the Rumble, I just came in and I was 40 years old and this was 1991. People had waited for it so long that I think they said we’re not waiting until WrestleMania. Let’s put these guys together because nothing else was working at the time.
We actually started on the West Coast and sold out everything and in all honesty Turner did not have the audience or the viewership in the West Coast that they had in the Midwest. So they knew me but not that well. So we went to Oakland, LA, Phoenix, San Diego and back on the road I landed in New York, Bobby Hennan quit then we did the Garden and we didn’t see each other.”
