Post by CandyKANE on Feb 9, 2003 17:59:02 GMT -5
credit:1wrestling.com
The following highlights from the WWE Confidential piece on Austin v. Bischoff were written by John Keane:
OK, things get a bit screwy here-Gene goes on to inform us that Eric’s job now rests solely on him getting Stone Cold to sign a new WWE contract. That’s some blatant re-writing of history,. I don’t remember Vince ever mentioning Austin at all. At last count the boss only insisted that this Monday’s show be one for the books.
Whatever, sorry about going off on a tangent, let’s go ahead and take a look at some reasons Austin might not care to return to Raw while it’s being run by Bischoff, a man he’s referred to as ‘a piece of trash’.
We go to a Newsport interview with Stone Cold conducted on 3/18/1997. Rattlesnake makes it quick and to the point-while wrestling in Japan while under contract with WCW, he tore a triceps muscle. After returning home to rehabilitate, he was fired by WCW over the telephone-he makes it EXTREMELY clear he’d have preferred being told man-to-man, especially considering he only lived 35 miles from WCW headquarters.
We go to a quick shot of Austin in the WCW days (in the Hollywood Blondes team with the late Brian Pillman), then cut to Arn Anderson, who worked for WCW concurrently. He points out that WCW’s creative team had no clue as to what to do with the commodity of Steve Austin.
OK, let’s hear from Eric (this interview was conducted by WWE on 7/16/2002). I’m going to be as detailed as possible here. Eric remembers bringing Hulk Hogan to WCW back in ’94. He goes on to state Austin presented the idea of he and the Hulkster forming a tag team. Unfortunately for Austin, Bischoff and Hogan had already decided on a creative course-Ric Flair and the Hulkster in a singles feud. Eric describes the idea of a Hulk/Austin team as ‘kind of weak’ and adds that ‘the timing was wrong’. Here’s where things get kind of ugly, and once again, this is coming straight from Bischoff: He feels Austin ‘withdrew’, ‘became irritable and miserable’ after having his tag team idea rejected. Quote: “All of a sudden he came up hurt. Every time we needed him he came up hurt.” Eric remembers a TV taping Austin was scheduled for and no-showed. He had Tony Schiavone try to track him down. On calling his home, Tony was informed by his wife that he wasn’t there, but he told Eric he could clearly hear Austin yell (again quoting), “Tell that son of a bitch that I’m not coming!” in the background. Eric decided right then he’d had enough of Austin. Got to go for another quote here: “If he doesn’t have the guts, or the confidence, or the whatever it is, or the courtesy to call and say ‘Hey, ya know, I’m not coming in, my knees hurt, my backs hurt, I’m just not coming in’, that’s all I needed, and I didn’t get it. So I didn’t really feel I owed Steve Austin anything.” Eric feels Austin’s temperamental behavior was a direct result of him not getting ‘what Steve wanted’ and at the above-mentioned point, Eric felt he had to say ‘enough’.
The following highlights from the WWE Confidential piece on Austin v. Bischoff were written by John Keane:
OK, things get a bit screwy here-Gene goes on to inform us that Eric’s job now rests solely on him getting Stone Cold to sign a new WWE contract. That’s some blatant re-writing of history,. I don’t remember Vince ever mentioning Austin at all. At last count the boss only insisted that this Monday’s show be one for the books.
Whatever, sorry about going off on a tangent, let’s go ahead and take a look at some reasons Austin might not care to return to Raw while it’s being run by Bischoff, a man he’s referred to as ‘a piece of trash’.
We go to a Newsport interview with Stone Cold conducted on 3/18/1997. Rattlesnake makes it quick and to the point-while wrestling in Japan while under contract with WCW, he tore a triceps muscle. After returning home to rehabilitate, he was fired by WCW over the telephone-he makes it EXTREMELY clear he’d have preferred being told man-to-man, especially considering he only lived 35 miles from WCW headquarters.
We go to a quick shot of Austin in the WCW days (in the Hollywood Blondes team with the late Brian Pillman), then cut to Arn Anderson, who worked for WCW concurrently. He points out that WCW’s creative team had no clue as to what to do with the commodity of Steve Austin.
OK, let’s hear from Eric (this interview was conducted by WWE on 7/16/2002). I’m going to be as detailed as possible here. Eric remembers bringing Hulk Hogan to WCW back in ’94. He goes on to state Austin presented the idea of he and the Hulkster forming a tag team. Unfortunately for Austin, Bischoff and Hogan had already decided on a creative course-Ric Flair and the Hulkster in a singles feud. Eric describes the idea of a Hulk/Austin team as ‘kind of weak’ and adds that ‘the timing was wrong’. Here’s where things get kind of ugly, and once again, this is coming straight from Bischoff: He feels Austin ‘withdrew’, ‘became irritable and miserable’ after having his tag team idea rejected. Quote: “All of a sudden he came up hurt. Every time we needed him he came up hurt.” Eric remembers a TV taping Austin was scheduled for and no-showed. He had Tony Schiavone try to track him down. On calling his home, Tony was informed by his wife that he wasn’t there, but he told Eric he could clearly hear Austin yell (again quoting), “Tell that son of a bitch that I’m not coming!” in the background. Eric decided right then he’d had enough of Austin. Got to go for another quote here: “If he doesn’t have the guts, or the confidence, or the whatever it is, or the courtesy to call and say ‘Hey, ya know, I’m not coming in, my knees hurt, my backs hurt, I’m just not coming in’, that’s all I needed, and I didn’t get it. So I didn’t really feel I owed Steve Austin anything.” Eric feels Austin’s temperamental behavior was a direct result of him not getting ‘what Steve wanted’ and at the above-mentioned point, Eric felt he had to say ‘enough’.
