During a recent WWE interview, WWE Hall of Famer ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin talked about why his first WWF Title win against Shawn Michaels sucked, not liking Vince’s idea of him and Mike Tyson fighting in the ring & more.
Below are the highlights:
On why his first WWF Title win against Shawn Michaels sucked:
“We were in Boston at the Fleet Center. I wrestled the one and only Shawn Michaels. We didn’t know if Shawn was going to get in the ring. He wasn’t really in a good place at that time. In his head, in his back, he was beat up, battered. I was on fire. Tyson came in, he was the X-factor. A lot of outside eyeballs coming into the product. I mean he really brought a lot of attention with him and we were able to capitalize on that but the bottom line was, was the match even going to happen?
We didn’t get the chance to pull out all the stops. I didn’t get the best out of Shawn Michaels and he didn’t get the best out of me. I walked right back past the blue curtains and there was Vince. I looked at him and I said, ‘Man, that match sucked.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, it all starts fresh tomorrow.’ And the next day, that’s where we started that campaign, the kind of Stone Cold thing with Vince McMahon, the corporate thing, and it all started working, all the pieces started falling into place.
You always want to knock a grand slam every time you go out there. We didn’t but things happened after that and that’s what you do to move forward. You look past the match, put it behind us, I now have a championship, focus on things and move forward. That’s what we did.”
On not liking Vince’s idea of him and Mike Tyson fighting in the ring:
“Hey man, I was ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, alright? This was way bacak in the day. When I’m ‘Stone Cold” Steve Austin I’m in 150%. I was smart enough to know my place. My role is in a WWE 20×20, I got no business going up against Mike Tyson and killing everything that I built up by him knocking my a$$ out within 20 seconds of the bell ringing.”
On Mike Tyson (as special enforcer) not doing the three count properly:
“I thought the three count was a little too quick. You want to win that title with a slow, deliberate count of the proper cadence. He hit the mat too fast three times. That would be my only knock about what Mike Tyson did.”
