Welcome to our collection of quotes by Stone Cold Steve Austin. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson, December 18, 1964; later Steven James Williams) is an American television host, actor, and former professional wrestler, who competed under the name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential professional wrestlers of all time. Austin was integral to the success of the Attitude Era in the WWF, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Austin started his professional wrestling career after playing college football at the University of North Texas. He became "Stunning" Steve Austin in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1991 to 1995, using the character of a handsome man who relied on his good looks and flowing blond hair, and during 1993 he made up one half of the tag team The Hollywood Blonds alongside Brian Pillman. After a brief stint in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in late 1995, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) as The Ringmaster. The following year, having grown a goatee and shaved his head, he was repackaged as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. After this character change, he gained significant mainstream popularity as a brash, vulgar, beer-drinking antihero who routinely defied the establishment and his boss, then-WWF chairman Vince McMahon. Austin thus became the "poster boy" of the Attitude Era. He was forced to retire from in-ring competition in 2003 due to multiple knee injuries and also a serious neck injury. Throughout the rest of 2003 and 2004, he was featured as an on-screen authority figure of Raw.
Austin held 19 championships throughout his wrestling career. He is a six-time WWF Champion, a two-time WWF Intercontinental Champion, a four-time WWF Tag Team Champion and a one-time Million Dollar Champion in WWE. In WCW, he was a two-time WCW World Television Champion, a two-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, a one-time WCW World Tag Team Champion, and a one-time NWA World Tag Team Champion. In addition, he is the fifth-ever WWE Triple Crown Champion, the winner of the 1996 WWF King of the Ring tournament, and a record three-time Royal Rumble winner. Austin headlined multiple WWE pay-per-view events, including three WrestleManias (XIV, XV, and X-Seven). He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.
Following his wrestling career, Austin started a podcast named The Steve Austin Show and released an IPA beer called the "Broken Skull IPA". Austin hosted a reality competition series, Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge, from 2014 to 2017 and has been the star of Straight Up Steve Austin since 2019.
When I see things through my eyes, I don't want to ever just be really negative towards someone's performance. There are many ways to skin a cat. Sometimes I watch the guys, and they're doing different things than I would have done, but I don't ever want to be too critical.
As much as I love the business and I love my fans, I don't want to be at every WrestleMania.
I got out of the business when I got out. The hunger was out of my system.
If it's the morning, and I had a late night, the worst thing in the world is a bright light.
I love the business of pro wrestling, and it is something I know better than anything else I know about.
Paul Heyman works with Brock. The magic works between Brock and Paul because of their dynamic and their chemistry.
That final match I had at WrestleMania with The Rock was my last match.
When you wrestle for 15 years, you don't want to go back to driving that forklift.
There's so many things I want to accomplish in the world of acting. But, the two most important are that I want to keep paying the bills and I want to get better. That's about it. I enjoy what I do. I'll stay busy. I've been lucky.
The thing about the 'Broken Skull Challenge' is that there's really nothing else like it on television.
The thing that's so tough about 'Broken Skull Challenge' is you're going head-to-head with another human being who may or may not be stronger than you and may or may not want it more than you.
I wear decent shades, but if I lose them, I'll go right to the store and get cheap ones because my eyes are that sensitive.
It's like I tell everybody, if you get a chance to win the Royal Rumble or the King of the Ring back when they had it, that means you're gonna get a push. You getting an opportunity at something big, and it can really set up your future for you. So if you're that guy, boy, it's pressure.
If you are fat, no matter what you wear, nothing is going to make you sexier.
The Rock is one of the biggest movie stars in the world. So give the guy his due.
I like pure pro-wrestling, when it's serious in its orientation and presentation -- like it's a legit sport with Jim Ross calling the action.
I respect Hulk Hogan because his career lasted some 30 odd years. I think I lasted about 15, but during my peak years, I took the business to a height it never seen before.
Probably the greatest match in my career, and really put me on the match as a main event guy and paved the way for what I was to become, was Wrestlemania 13, with the one and only, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart.
Man, I had a good time working on 'Grown Ups 2.' First of all, when I read the script, it is hands-down the funniest script I've ever read. It's laugh-out-loud funny.
Man, it was a great ride back in the day. Obviously, I started out in WCW, and I was a good mechanic back in the day. Got fired from that gig, made a turn for ECW.
You're in there, you're having a match, and you're feeding off that crowd. That's the gasoline that fuels the match, and that's how you make your decisions. If you're not listening to that crowd when you're working, you're missing the biggest part of what working is all about.
I've been in the entertainment industry -- wresting, but the entertainment industry since 1989; if you have thin skin, you're going to have a tough time in this town, but I've got thick skin.
I'm pro-WWE, but also I maintain my independence and speak my true thoughts, never bashing the product. But yes, I can be critical. I've earned the right to be critical.
When Savage died, that was hard on me. I didn't even hardly know Randy, but I just turned 51 this past December, and he was 58 when he died. I'm like, 'Hey man, just because I'm in that line of work, do I have an expiration date? Am I supposed to go?' I always wonder, but I don't harbor it.
I think 'The Condemned' has a great story. It's a lot more than a mindless action flick.
I'm glad about 'The Curtain Call' now, but I remember being very confused watching it all go down because I was right there behind the curtain watching it all, and I couldn't believe these guys were breaking kayfabe.
In the ring, if someone hits you too hard, you can only take so many of those, and you have to send back a receipt, meaning 'Hey, settle down.' If a guy has a bad night at the office and catches you in the chin, you pop him so he knows what's going on.
Everyone can have a rough day at the office, as they say. I've had those myself many times when the bell rings.
I'm telling you, there have been some great finishers in the world of pro wrestling or sports entertainment. Whatever you want to call it. Man, I enjoyed the Iron Claw back in the day. I believed it was real.
I didn't do choreographed fighting for a living. I was a professional wrestler for 15 years; there's a big difference.
I want to be careful when I'm breaking down matches because I don't want to offend anybody or knock anybody's work. It took me a long time to get where I was at, so I know how it feels when someone knocks on you.
Driving a forklift is kind of like riding a bicycle. You've either got forklift skills or you don't, and I can remove somebody's molars with a forklift.
I don't have the talent of Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm Steve Austin, so when I get to hang out and be who I am, and I live on set, it's like a paid vacation, man.
I don't live as 'Stone Cold.' I live as Steve Austin. I was 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin back in 2003, then I rode off into the sunset.
I don't know if a pro wrestling career prepares you for Hollywood. When you get out there, and you're in an arena for 20,000 people or 90,000 people, it's a lot different than being on a quiet set with 100 people, so I think you get used to dealing with cameras.
Say the average arena is 20,000 people. You're in the very center of that arena, and you're playing to the worst seat in the house up there. So everything is very big, very large. It's like a very violent form of Broadway in a 20x20 ring.
I think if I'd never had found pro wrestling, I'd be a blue collar guy, working a 9-to-5 job.
A great gimmick is a great gimmick, but on a dud, it just doesn't work. It comes down to talent.
I was a Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes guy. Ric Flair continues to be my favorite wrestler of all time. I loved Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel and all of those guys, but I'm a big Flair guy.
I've got a chance to host a show called 'Redneck Island' on CMT. I love doing that show.
I go back to the old school days of that Attitude Era stuff. Everybody knows when I speak of the Attitude Era, my favorite stuff is of the mid-'80s, all that NWA stuff, the World Class stuff, the stuff that Bill Watts was doing.
Once I came up with the 'Stone Cold' thing, it was like a snowball rolling down a hill; it just kept getting larger and larger, and I wasn't afraid to push the envelope.
I no longer need my power tie, because I always have, my power finger.
A lot of people say, 'What set the Attitude Era up?' or, 'What started the Attitude Era?' To me -- and I was allegedly the leader of it -- sports entertainment, pro wrestling, whatever you want to call it has always had an attitude. So, why that particular generation got labeled, I don't know.
They made a three-hour 'Raw,' but two hours is about my time limit. I ain't got that kind of attention span.
I love my fans, and I love my relationship with the fans, but when you're a performer, and you're used to being the mac daddy, the main cat, and all of a sudden you're not that guy anymore, it's kind of a whole different spectrum and a whole different level.
When I came to WWE back in the day, I'd been working seven-and-a-half years, and I was very frustrated. I started getting some momentum, and my work was very vicious, and it was very believable.
I think they've got to give Kevin Owens a run with the belt. He's a veteran, and he's really clicking on the mic, and the kid is super talented.
On 'Redneck Island,' a show I love, there was a lot of drama and storylines going on because someone's always voted off the island through process of elimination.
I talk about things I'm passionate about. I talk about the wrestling business, because I love wrestling. I just love it. If I can just have good conversation with a guy who was a bada** wrestler, we're talking about something that's very near and dear to our heart.
I made a good living being a tough guy on TV, but I'd rather laugh and joke all day long than try to be a tough guy.
I have so many great memories of the wrestling business. I've worked real hard to get to the top, and how many flukes and breaks to have happened that had allowed me to have the success that I did.
I enjoyed breaking down my matches, because wrestling fans really like to know what I'm actually thinking, and why certain things needed to happen at a certain time.
When that glass broke and 'Stone Cold' was making an entrance, and that roof blew off that building, that sends you higher than life or anything that I know of. It's an adrenaline rush you can't explain.
You treat me like a dog and you expect me to smile? You remind me of a jackass.
I love the business of pro wrestling and it is something I know better than anything else I know about.
Vince Mcmahon may have bought this ring but if you get your *ss in it Stone Colds going to throw your *ss out of it.
I'm telling you this -- if Stone Cold comes back out, somebody's going to get their ass whipped!
If you put a s infront of hitman, you have my exact thoughts on Bret Hart.
I'll tell you what, the chemistry that I had with Bret 'Hitman' Hart in the ring, and the respect and the trust we had for each other, was unbelievable.
You see, everyone in that locker-room gotta pager. And everyone that looks at that pager, sees the three-one-six, so their ass belongs to me.
Based on the name value I had, I went to L.A. and got involved in independent movies.
I found out in pro wrestling that it works better if you just try and be yourself versus working on something you're not, so I'm me, and maybe it's magnified a bit, but it's easier just being me.
Why have you not broken from the pack? You're playing it safe. Safe aint gonna get you sh!t in this world.
I used to love Andre The Giant. I could sit around all day and listen to Andre stories. He was such a wonderful, unique guy who everyone loved being around. The thing about Andre, he just had this magical mystique about him.
With the Monday Night Wars, it was almost a pay-per-view every single Monday between the two factions because they were trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink to win the ratings war.
Everyone out here in Los Angeles is trying to do whatever to break into films. It is a tough industry to get into, kind of like pro wrestling in a lot of respects when you think about it.
My exit strategy from pro wrestling wasn't carved in stone. I retired because of a few neck issues, some neurological issues.
I don't look to save the world with any of the movies that I make. I'm not trying to make any political statement with the movies I make. I'm trying to have a good time. I'm trying to entertain people.
You know how much money I could have made playing professional football as a tight end? But I can't jump, and I can't run fast. That was my problem.
When I went out and did what I did in the world of professional wrestling as Stone Cold Steve Austin, pretty much anything and everything thing I said was ad lib, on the spot, just let it fly and go for 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.
In the wrestling world, you had WWE, WCW, and smaller promotions that were like the independents. I look at it as craft beer being the independent beer makers. It's the indie scene.
You cannot put Paul Heyman with Roman Reigns. People would know you're putting Paul Heyman with him because there is a problem.
I'm honest and tell it like it is. I've been around the horn a few times and learned valuable lessons from screwing up a bit. So, if I can pass off advice or make someone smile on the way to work, I'm for it.
Don't look forward to me putting on the trunks and knee braces to get back in the ring and stomp a mudhole in somebody and walking it dry.
When I got into professional wrestling, I started, and I starved for two years, and I finally got some breaks. And then I got the biggest break, and I made the most of it and took wresting to its highest level ever.