In an exclusive interview for Bleacher Report, Graham “GSM” Matthews got a chance to interview WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stone Cold is promoting his new A&E show “Stone Cold Takes America,” which premieres this Sunday at 10 pm. Here are some transcribed highlights and scroll down to watch the entire interview.
Steve Austin talked about some of the segments coming up on the show:
“That flight simulator was amazing. That was a heck of an experience. Bowling with the seniors was probably one of my favorite segments that we did because with respect to a lot of the outdoor stuff, man, when A&E finally greenlit the show, when we got everything together and started getting out there and filming, well first of all, when they gave me the green light, my wife and I said, ‘Well, surely they’re going to push till spring’, like right now would be a great time to start shooting the type of show that we made, and it was in the dead of winter. So we got our butts kicked a couple of times. So I welcome the indoor segment. Some of the fish out of water stuff was extremely painful, but in the totality of everything, by the time I got my ideas in there and they had their ideas, we did a lot of outdoor activity stuff, some cool adrenaline based stuff as well. I had a blast and I’m appreciative for the opportunity.”
On what surprised him the most during the show:
“This was a surprise because my call time was 12:45 in the morning to go to a weather station at 2:15 AM to get on the weather with a young lady named Madison McKay and do the weather report. Man, she started showing me how she breaks down the weather. She’s taken a paragraph like this and makes it into pertinent information just by looking at it. She wouldn’t try to psych me out, but I got so psyched out by what she was doing. I thought I had to perform at that level. That was the first time and dude, I’ve been on live TV for years. I thrive in that environment, but I always figured, hey man, it’s a real snowstorm and I’ve got to get these people to work safely. I froze up on live TV. I think it was the worst live television performance I’ve ever had, so that surprised me and the fact I didn’t know about the call time either. That was a rough day at the office.”
On why he didn’t do WrestleMania 39:
“Originally, the show was going to take, I think give or take three months to shoot it, but it took close to five. It chewed up a lot of time. The weather threw some monkey wrenches at us too, but it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. So yeah, man, I mean, from just interviewing people for the podcast, as far as people say, ‘Hey, Man, why don’t you do Mania?’ You know, they asked me to be a part of it. But as I told them and I’m telling everybody today if you ask me, I didn’t know what my life was gonna look like until I finished filming the show. I finished filming the show about four days before WrestleMania. I drove every single mile in that RV. I took dumbbells with me on the road, a sandbag, and a kettlebell. That’s how I got my workout in. I was a decent shape for the show. When they greenlit the show, before I started getting ready, I hired a nutrition coach. I got down to 7% body fat. I got in the best shape I’ve ever been in and then it didn’t pay off because the whole time we were in 10 degree weather. I got about 10 layers on. So I got into shape in my lifetime to be all covered up. So if it goes into another season or whatever, it’ll be in warm weather, and I’ll be jacked.”
On his beer:
“When I got together with El Segundo Brewing company back in the day, that is me all over that beer. That’s me sipping beer with Rob, the owner, and telling him what I liked in a beer. We’re going on, I think this is our eighth year. We started in ’15. It’s now ’23, a little over eight years in business. That beer was never designed to leave that brewery. We’re now in about 25 States or Japan. We launched a lager due to popular demand. We just came out with a double IPA. I don’t do That as a vanity project. I don’t do that because I’m trying to make a ton of money. The beer business, that’s a passion project. Do I want to make money off of it? Yes. But that beer is all me and all El Segundo so I’m proud of that beer.”
On talking with LA Knight via text:
“I said, ‘hey man, just make sure your cardio is supreme’ and I said ‘just go do you’. So that guy can talk a blue streak. He’s a great worker. He’s got a good look, got good energy. So I think he’s doing great. I think he can ascend to a higher level, and I think he will. So I think the guy’s doing awesome.”
On what the plan was for him at WrestleMania:
“Yeah, the concrete idea was a match. It was a match and one of the top guys in the business, period. I will let everybody speculate about that. But yeah, it was a match, and I didn’t think I could get ready for it in time because I didn’t know my schedule, which is what I told them.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Bleacher Report’s Graham “GSM” Matthews with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
