Complex.com writer Damien McDuffie has an excellent interview up with WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Austin discusses a wide variety of topics from his career, his mega-successful podcast, NXT and more. He also touches on the angle from 2007 that involved himself, Donald Trump and Vince McMahon. Bobby Lashley (representing Trump) took on Umaga (representing McMahon) at WrestleMania 23 and the loser (McMahon) would have to get his head shaved. Austin was the special referee for that match and he played a big part in the build-up, finish, and aftermath of the match.
Austin revealed that it was Vince McMahon’s idea to get Trump to take the Stunner at WrestleMania. He said, “Vince says to me, ‘Steve, I’m going to see if I can get Donald to take the Stunner,’” McMahon goes up to Trump and says, ‘Hey Donald, this is Stone Cold Steve Austin.’ I shook Donald’s hand. He goes, ‘Listen, I want to know if after the match, when everything is done, if Steve could hit the Stone Cold Stunner on you.’ Donald says, ‘You think it’d be a good thing?’ and Vince goes, ‘Oh, of course it would be. It would just blow the roof off the place.’ And Donald’s right hand guy was saying, ‘No, no, no! You don’t need to do this, we got other things to do!’ He’s trying to talk him out of it. And Donald says to Vince, ‘You think it’ll help?’ and Vince goes, ‘I promise you it’ll help.’ And Donald says, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’
Austin gave credit to Trump for taking the move even though it wasn’t picture-perfect. He added, “He was a stand-up guy, he was there to do business and we did business, so I respect the man for that. If I see him giving a speech on the TV, I don’t think, ‘Hey, I gave this guy a stunner.’ We were doing business and we did business. The fact that he is going to be the next President of the United States, it’s a hell of a story.”
Austin also talks about the old wrestling system vs. today’s system, wrestling psychology and more. It’s a good read and you can check out the complete interview by clicking here.
