WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin recently shared his thoughts on his iconic WrestleMania 13 Submission Match against Bret Hart being selected as the inaugural “Immortal Moment” inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 41 weekend.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Austin reflected on the match, its impact, and receiving the news. Austin acknowledged the match’s quality and his chemistry with Hart, while also expressing appreciation for the venue.
“I knew that was a great match, no doubt,” Austin stated. “I noticed it as it was going down because Chicago Rosemont Horizon, one of my favorite buildings to work, and probably the favorite building for me to work in, and I love Bret Hart. We just always had great chemistry from day one.”
He revealed that WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque personally called him about the unique honor. “Triple H gave me the call. He said, ‘Hey, man, we’re thinking about doing this, and this is gonna be the first match to go in.’ I have such a long list of great matches in my mind that could have gone first, but this one obviously made sense,” Austin recalled.
Austin elaborated, was due to the bout’s significant historical impact, which famously featured a double turn that propelled Austin’s career forward. “This is one of the great matches, but just the historical impact that it had on the rest of the business after this match unfolded where Bret would go on to become a heel. I would turn into an anti-hero babyface and have the Austin run. I couldn’t have had that run without Bret,” he emphasized.
Austin credited Vince McMahon’s foresight regarding the double turn, suggesting it might have stemmed from lessons learned decades earlier. “It was Vince’s vision… I guess I didn’t see the big picture that Vince saw of turning me babyface. Certainly I was becoming one just from crowd response. Vince had that vision. We did the turn, the double turn, and executed that with perfection.”
He also made sure to credit others involved: “Shout out to Ken Shamrock who was a big part of it as well as the announce team, but it was awesome.”
Reflecting on the match itself, Austin said, “It was a great night at the office. Every time you go in the ring, you want to have a match like that and that doesn’t always happen, of course, but at the highest level, we were able to execute and go out there and have a great match.” He concluded, “It was just a big honor to go in and be the first match of this kind to start this new trend.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
