Donald Wood sent this in.
Fellow Bleacher Report Featured Columnists Mike Chiari, Brandon Galvin and myself had WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin on the show this week, and it was a great episode with plenty of exclusive content.
We talked about a potential return to the WWE, his dream matches, his podcast, his television work, Tough Enough, Hulk Hogan, WrestleMania 30, CM Punk, the new crop of WWE Superstars and so much more.
Donald Wood: You are one of the biggest names in wrestling history and you are now making waves with your podcast The Steve Austin Show on PodcastOne. With a long list of exciting guests, how have you found the transition from wrestling and movies to the podcast medium?
“Well, you know, it’s interesting. Asking people questions, carrying on conversations, you certainly develop a rhythm and a style. I learned early on that one of the mistakes I was making early on was trying to cram too much stuff in an interview. I’d talk to guys who had 20- to 40-year careers and try to condense that into a two hour session, and it just doesn’t happen like that. So now, I just have bullet points and we start talking and it ends up just being a conversation. I don’t paint by numbers anymore, I just go by how I feel and try to take the conversation in different places and just go with the flow. It has been an interesting transition. I enjoy doing it. It allows me to use some of the creative energy that I put into Monday Night Raw way back in the day and it gives me a way to maintain communication with my fan base and to just simply and purely entertain them. I don’t talk about religion, politics, none of that bull****; it’s just audio whoop ass for the working man and the working woman to take their mind of the task at hand.”
Mike Chiari: You’ve already interviewed many of the biggest stars in wrestling on your podcast, but who’s one person you haven’t had on the show yet who tops the list in terms of desired guests?
“I’d like to talk to Hulk Hogan, of course, because he’s one of the biggest names in the history of the business, if not the biggest. So, obviously I’d like to talk to Hogan. ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham. I’d like to talk to Dusty Rhodes face-to-face, in person. I had a chance to talk to him on the phone in the early stages like some of the people who I’ve already interviewed. It’s always different talking to someone on the phone, of course. I’ve talked to Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Shawn Michaels on the phone, but a one-on-one conversation is the best. I’ve actually just connected to Kevin Von Erich the other day, we’ve been trying to get together for a while and I’m actually going to make a trip out to Hawaii. The wife has been trying to con me into going to Hawaii forever. That’s one place that I have not been, so while we go to Hawaii to satisfy my wife’s desire to go to and lay on the beach, I’ll be interviewing Kevin Von Erich, so he’s a guy I’m really looking forward to talking to. Hopefully, I get a chance to talk to him in the next few months. I talked to Undertaker. I asked him if he wanted to do the show, he said he would, and that’s a matter of me getting out to Austin, Texas, and talking to him one-on-one, but he’s another one I’d love to talk to.”
Donald Wood: Another interesting addition to the WWE Network is a new season of Tough Enough. For many fans, your presence on the show was the highlight of the program. Are there any plans of having you back on the show and is that something you would be interested in?
“I’d certainly be open to it, but I get my Google alerts and I read that they were bringing back Tough Enough, but then there have been delays in it. I would consider doing something along the lines of Tough Enough because that was my first endeavor into reality television and that is a world I know and love, and that’s why I was on that show. I’m not going to blow smoke up my ass, I love the business of pro wrestling and it is something I know better than anything else I know about. So if I get a chance to do that show or they offer that spot to me and we could make it work, I’d love to do that show.”
Brandon Galvin: You’ve haven’t been shy in weighing in on CM Punk’s absence from WWE. If he were to make a return to WWE, how would you bring him back?
“Man, I don’t know. I haven’t made too much of it. I predicted he would make a comeback at WrestleMania 30 and obviously that didn’t happen. He left the company and whenever he comes back, that’s up to him. I don’t know how I would bring him back. I just know that when I got out of the business for about 6-10 months, I lost a **** load of money and I believe that if you have got some miles left in the tank, you should make your money while you can and don’t leave it on the table because you’ll never make that money back. At the end of the day, you can say, ‘it ain’t about the money.’ Well, it is about the money because you need to make as much of it as you can before you can’t make that money anymore. I don’t know how you bring him back. Certainly the fans would welcome him back because he was doing a great job before he left and when he gets his head right and wants to come back, I believe he will. As far as me playing Mr. Booker, I don’t have a clue.”
Donald Wood: You left WWE in a similar fashion. What are your thoughts on a superstar leaving the business the way CM Punk did?
“I totally get it. If it’s strictly burnout and not being thrilled with the storylines, I totally get it and understand it. You get to a point where it doesn’t matter about the money and I didn’t give a ****, but that’s me speaking now. Back then, I didn’t give a flying ****. I was willing to forego the money because I didn’t care. I was fed up. But now looking back and hindsight being 20/20, and I realize how much money I left on the table because all of the business deals dropped off the table because that was a big point in my life. So I can understand if it’s just strictly burnout or frustration; I get it. If it’s anything else, if it’s a health issue, I don’t know about. It is what it is. If he feels like coming back, he will.”
YouTube interview: http://youtu.be/oCS2b-h8E3g
Ring Rust Radio interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ringrustradio/2014/06/10/ring-rust-radio–june-10-w-stone-cold-steve-austin