Kane Talks About Working with Steve Austin, The Attitude Era, More

Kane recently appeared on The Ross Report to talk with WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross about various topics. Here are the highlights:

On working with Steve Austin:

“Actually, winning my first world championship in the First Blood match at King Of The Ring, of course, that was overshadowed by the Hell In A Cell match between Taker and Mick [Foley], but that was my first world championship and it was against Austin. And the thing is, when people ask me the highlight of my [pro wrestling] career, despite the fact that it was so early, that was it because Austin was well on his trajectory to be one of the three biggest stars of all time. To me it’s Austin, [Hulk] Hogan, and The Rock. And he was taking off and I was right there. The thing about Austin was you didn’t have to do anything because Steve was so over. He was so popular it didn’t matter. Everyone was just waiting for The Stunner, and then for Steve to jump up on the ring post and turnbuckle, and drink some beer. And that was it. It made it so easy that it was just tremendous.”

On the Attitude Era:

“[Austin] was the guy who could say whatever he wanted and get away with it, do whatever he wanted and get away with it. Most of us have mouths that write checks that our body can’t cash. Well, he cashed all his checks and I think that was the thing that appealed to everyone. The dude talked trash and backed it up and backed it up against everybody! And then, in the end, he was just a guy. He was a common dude. In a way, he was almost like the Dusty Rhodes of his time. He’s quite a bit different, but nevertheless, he was a common guy and backed up everything he said. And, yeah, told his boss to shove it, which is, in the end, what a lot of folks would like to do.” Kane continued, “frankly, I mean, you can credit ‘The Attitude Era’ to whoever, but if there hadn’t been a ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, it never would have been like that. He was the most integral part of that whole era.”