Steve Austin on the Neville Situation, Angle Wrestling Again, His Show

‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin was on Ring Rust Radio where he spoke on Neville leaving, Kurt Angle returning to the ring and his show.

On Neville walking out:

“Well, my situation when I walked out, I wasn’t on board with the direction creative wanted to go. I was working my ass off and I just was not happy with that decision. So, I could have made a better decision with how I handled it. Just walking away like I did was a bad idea. I don’t know specifically what Neville’s business deal is or what his contract is or the circumstances under which he left. I know that any time you walk away from something and you don’t have that meeting or that one-on-one time with Vince or Paul or whoever it may be, but that’s the most prudent decision to make. By the same token, I can respect the guy that has enough balls to walk away just because he had a gut feeling like I did. I just wish him all the best in the world. In my opinion, he is an outstanding talent, he was really coming around with his gimmick and character, and he was a guy that I really liked watching. I’m sure a lot of people in the WWE Universe fell the same way. Hopefully he gets past this and whether he goes back to WWE or goes somewhere else, I hope he continues to have a successful career and have fun. At the end of the day, pro-wrestling, to be able to get paid to do that, it’s a fun job but it is a business and you need to get paid accordingly. I want the kid to have a great career, make his money and go on to the next phase of his life when it’s time to do that.”

On Angle returning to the ring:

“I don’t know what I want them to do with him because I don’t know Kurt’s physical capacity with what he can do in the squared circle from a performers stand point. As far as I would rank him as an all-time great, with what he can do in the ring and character standpoint, let’s talk about his in-ring work: off the charts. When this guy came in, I know he won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, he comes in to the company and I see this raw talent. He is having these fast-paced wrestling matches, and I was like, holy smokes, this guy is catching onto this like no one I have ever seen in my life. So as a performer, so far ahead of his time and probably the fastest guy in the history of the business to pick it up at the level he picked it up at and just lights out. It didn’t matter who he was getting in the ring with, anybody who got in the ring with him they got a chance to steal the show. His work ethic and desire to be the best was among the highest I have ever known in the history of that business. As a character and persona, some of the backstage stuff we were doing because he was injured and I had three broken bones in my lower back, that comedy stuff we did was mostly adlibbed. The guy was a once in a generation talent. I love him as a person and I love his work in the ring. He was an absolute, true warrior and a bad ass in that ring. Not everybody can keep up with him.”

On if he gets the itch to perform for the WWE Universe:

“No, man. I got a fire in my belly for the business because I love pro-wrestling. I have zero desire to ever try to get back in the ring. I have so many great memories and I look back on those times fondly. It’s the young guy’s time to shine and I am enjoying seeing what they are coming up with. I like seeing the old school guys like myself still in there and doing their thing. When people decide to step away from the ring like I did or the guys that decide to step back in, it’s on a case-by-case, person-by-person basis. Some guys just like to hang on for as long as they can. For a while there, I didn’t understand why guys would do that. When I really thought about it, it’s because they love being in that god-dang ring so much that they just can’t get away from it. I had that neck injury and I needed to get out of the business so I did. I can understand that mindset now. I am done, I am happy being done, I wish I could of stayed in the ring a little bit longer, I rode off into the sunset a little bit sooner rather than I would of like, but it is what it is. I have come to terms with that and I have moved down the road. I am still a fan of the business and watching the men and women do what they do in the business and on Raw and SmackDown and the pay-per-views on the network.”

On the Broken Skull Challenge:

“It’s just bad-ass competition. It’s very simple, very basic, very strenuous, very hard and in a tough environment. Basically, we film this on top of a mountain in the desert right outside Los Angeles. Everything we are using from boulders to barrels to logs, there’s no scientific nothing out there. It’s bracket-style competition. Eight athletes come out each week through three rounds of competition and you either win or you lose. If you win, you go on, and if you lose, you go home. At the end of the day, out of eight competitors, one will be left standing. That competitor will come back the next day and run my obstacle course and it’s called the Skull Buster. It’s a half mile course with ten obstacles standing in your way. If you can beat a bench-mark time, you get $10,000 and remain there until someone can dethrone you. It is a very simple formula to understand. If you have never seen it before, you can tune in and understand exactly what is going down. What is going down is extreme, hardcore, physical competition. There ain’t no reality, the only reality out there is you either are going to win or lose, it is a challenge show.”

If you would like to hear an audio version of the comments made by Austin, watch the video below.

WWE Stone Cold Steve Austin Interview 2017 - Ring Rust Radio

What are your opinions on his comments? Have you ever watched the Broken Skull Challenge?

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