Forbes recently spoke with WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Austin talked about a number of topics, that included his new A&E series Stone Cold Takes on America, CM, the WWE-UFC Merger, celebrities in the ring and “Superstar” Billy Graham.
Below are excerpts from Austin’s interview with Forbes.
Austin’s noted that the original idea for Stone Cold Takes on America was to learn how to drive a race car throughout the course of a season, but that it eventually expanded into a smorgasboard of different jobs such joining a bowling team, officiating a wedding and even working a drive-thru window.
He said that his show has taken him outside of his comfort zone while learning about activities that evaded him while he was on the road with WWE.
“Well, I like being in my comfort zone (laughs), but when we came up with the idea of this show about me doing a lot of things that I wanted to do, turns out when you combine ideas, there’s a lot of ideas that the network would like to try to do as well. So you kind of got to merge all the ideas and do that…One of the tough things in stepping out to my comfort zone was when we were trying to find what the show was. We started filming without a pilot…but I’m not being Stone Cold. I’m not saying, ‘hey, gimme a hell. yeah!’ I don’t have that armor on. That’s not me. I live my life as Steve Austin.”
His thoughts on CM Punk and the current situation with AEW:
“Man, I just sent Punk a message last night. I didn’t know he had torn his triceps. I haven’t been following anything. I don’t know what’s going on with that. Me and Phil trade messages every here and there. We rarely talk, probably once or twice a year. I love the guy, and I don’t even know if I mentored him because Punk’s probably a lot smarter than I am.
Great promo guy, great worker, he’s got his own thing going and we’re just friends. So I think I remember there’s a picture of myself and him from Chicago, my favorite town to work in, my favorite building. And I guess he had come down to where we were all hanging out. Maybe he looked up to me back in the day, but I don’t know if I so much mentored him because I think he paid his own dues. He learned it the way he did and he got over on his own merits. The fact that maybe I could have been somewhat of an influence would be flattering if that were the case. But he’s made his own career.
But I don’t even know what’s going on with the current situation or what they’re doing because right now I rarely watch any of the product. I watch all the pay-per-views and major pay-per-views, but he’s certainly carved out a hellacious career in his own right by his own right.”
His thoughts on the WWE-UFC merger:
“I don’t know that it’s gonna change. Because I did see Triple H go out there and say, ‘hey man, we’re not going anywhere.’ Meaning that group of collective individuals, which is driving the product.
It seems to me that it is more about the brand so much than the individual people, but there are certainly those key individual people: Roman, Brock, Cody coming up being a big part of the reason why that brand is working. So I think it is more brand-based, but you’ve got to have the talent that can make that brand fly. And that goes back to the individuals. If you don’t have great individual talent, and I didn’t even mention the great women on the roster, but if you ain’t got great talent, that brand don’t mean anything. I agree with what you’re saying, though. It is more brand-based, but you’ve got to have those superstars to drive that brand and they’re really good at creating superstars.”
His thoughts on celebrities in the ring, such as Logan Paul, Bad Bunny and Pat McAfee:
“Well, if you go back, what, 20 some-odd years—maybe 25 and earlier—when they had Liberace and all the people from the showbiz world come in because they wanted to make WrestleMania just bigger than life. And it was. So they had incorporated that back then. But now we’re seeing those participants actually participating in storylines in the ring. Logan Paul’s been fantastic doing that.
It’s gone from not just getting the rub from them, but now WWE is giving people the rub by allow allowing them in and allowing them to participate, but they’ve gotta be good enough to participate. You can’t just throw somebody out there, like ‘hey, yeah, this person’s really hot in the showbiz world’ and come out there and stink out the building with a poor performance. Logan Paul has thrived in that scene and it’s a good thing. He has a great podcast, but the kid’s done a hell of a job and they’ve given him the opportunity to get in that ring.”
His thoughts on the Superstar Billy Graham and his recent passing:
“Man, I saw that last night and I had called Superstar once or twice many years ago and talked to him about his run. I was a huge fan of his, and he didn’t really influence me, it wasn’t my style, but I just liked that he was all about the showbiz. He was a good worker in his own right. Not the greatest athlete, but so influential with the body, the promos.
I love the fact that he was a light worker. He wasn’t trying to go out there and shoot on people, and he was all about the showbiz part of it. He was larger than life, and had they had the wherewithal to turn him babyface at the peak of his career when he was a heel, before they put that belt on Backlund, he would’ve been Hulkamania before Hulkamania was ever invented. I think even Hogan will say that he was influenced by Superstar, but sad that he is gone. He left a hell of a mark on an industry and he was awesome. I was a huge fan.”
Stone Cold Takes On America airs Sunday nights at 10:00 pm ET/PT on A&E as part of the network’s WWE Superstar Sunday lineup.