Kemo
03-29-2020, 05:15 PM
Firing Stone Cold Steve Austin while he was recovering from an injury was arguably one of the biggest mistakes WCW and Eric Bischoff made during the Attitude Era as The Texas Rattle Snake signed with WWE after this. He then went on to become one of the biggest stars in the wrestling history and his battles with Vince McMahon played a crucial part in winning the Monday Night Wars for the company.
On the latest episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about the firing of the former World Champion and revealed how a phone call led to this decision. The former WCW President recalled the time when Austin was in home recovering from a triceps injury but they were still paying him a lot of money due to his guaranteed contract.
So to make sure that Austin’s character stayed alive and it didn’t disappear from TV completely, Bischoff decided to put him in a backstage segment at WCW Staturday Night. He asked Tony Schiavone to give Stone Cold a call to come and shoot the promo but the former Champion didn’t want to come to the phone:
“Tony called Steve and Steve’s wife answered the phone, and the way it was reported back to me from Tony was that Steve’s wife said ‘Hey Steve, Tony Schiavone is on the phone he wants to talk to you’, and Tony could hear Steve yelling back to his wife, ‘Tell them sons of b—–s I’m not here.'” recalled Bischoff. “Well, that’s pretty bulls–t right? That’s bulls–t. He was there; he just didn’t want to have a conversation. He didn’t want to hear anything I had to say, or maybe he was in pain, I don’t know.”
Schiavone then came back to Eric Bischoff and detailed the call which led to him believing that Austin was being dishonest to him. According to the former WCW executive, he becomes irrational once he feels that someone is being dishonest with him and this is the reason why he made the call to let the former Champion go.
On the latest episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about the firing of the former World Champion and revealed how a phone call led to this decision. The former WCW President recalled the time when Austin was in home recovering from a triceps injury but they were still paying him a lot of money due to his guaranteed contract.
So to make sure that Austin’s character stayed alive and it didn’t disappear from TV completely, Bischoff decided to put him in a backstage segment at WCW Staturday Night. He asked Tony Schiavone to give Stone Cold a call to come and shoot the promo but the former Champion didn’t want to come to the phone:
“Tony called Steve and Steve’s wife answered the phone, and the way it was reported back to me from Tony was that Steve’s wife said ‘Hey Steve, Tony Schiavone is on the phone he wants to talk to you’, and Tony could hear Steve yelling back to his wife, ‘Tell them sons of b—–s I’m not here.'” recalled Bischoff. “Well, that’s pretty bulls–t right? That’s bulls–t. He was there; he just didn’t want to have a conversation. He didn’t want to hear anything I had to say, or maybe he was in pain, I don’t know.”
Schiavone then came back to Eric Bischoff and detailed the call which led to him believing that Austin was being dishonest to him. According to the former WCW executive, he becomes irrational once he feels that someone is being dishonest with him and this is the reason why he made the call to let the former Champion go.