Source: Mike Mooneyham of The Post and Courier
Stone Cold Steve Austin, who pitched a Rocky-like storyline for Ric Flair’s final year with WWE, said last week that he hasn’t been pleased with the angle thus far.
Austin laid out an elaborate scenario for Flair’s last major run with the company following last year’s Wrestlemania, but a revised, watered-down angle didn’t take root until late November when WWE owner Vince McMahon announced that Flair would have to retire the next time he lost.
Plans for the original storyline called for Flair to either win the title for a 17th and final time before retiring, or lose in an emotional, competitive match for the gold at Wrestlemania 24 in late March. Flair, however, doesn’t appear to be in the title hunt at this year’s big show, and his most likely opponent for his final match appears to be Shawn Michaels.
Austin admitted he hasn’t been watching the product that closely, but added that he didn’t think Flair was getting the kind of sendoff and storybook ending to his career that he deserved.
“We’re talking about ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. He’s my favorite pro wrestler ever in the history of the business. I know he took a little bit of a break and they brought him back. But I don’t think they green-lighted that thing near enough or made it as important as it could be and as it should be.”
Austin, who enjoyed the most lucrative run in pro wrestling history during the late ’90s, said Flair is the greatest performer — bar none — the industry has ever produced.
“Ric Flair is the most legitimate pro wrestler there ever was. He was the greatest traveling world champion of all time,” said Austin. “With all the exposes that pro wrestling was supposed to be fake and it turned into sports entertainment (in the mid-’80s), Ric Flair had the ability to go out there with an opponent of any talent level and have five-star matches. Whatever you thought about pro wrestling, when you saw Ric Flair, you knew that was the man in this sport. You had (Hulk) Hogan, who got hot in the ’80s and was kind of the show-bizzy type, but Ric Flair was the real deal in the world of entertainment, which everything is these days. Flair was the man. He still is.”
Austin, who said he “never would have thought in a million years” his career would have turned out the way it did, said there were several names he would have liked to wrestle, but never had the opportunity, including Randy Savage, Andre The Giant, Harley Race, Jack Brisco and Dusty Rhodes. There’s nothing at this point, he said, that would draw him back into active competition.
“If I really needed the money, I’d probably go back,” he said. “But I’ve always been very, very conservative about money, and I’ve invested wisely. I love the business and I’ll always love the business, but I don’t miss it anymore. I have fond memories when I think about all that stuff, but I’ve been out long enough to know that life goes on and that life doesn’t revolve around professional wrestling.”
It’s uncertain, Austin says, whether he’ll have a role at this year’s Wrestlemania.
“I got a pitch thrown at me that I wasn’t real keen on and turned it down. I’d like to think that I’ll be at Wrestlemania. Obviously I’m not going there to wrestle, but I would like to go to the Hall of Fame to see the new guys coming in. I think they’ve got a full card. It’s not my desire to get back in the ring at this point in my life. I’ve got great memories of everything I did. I had a great career, but it’s time for those guys and girls to have the spotlight.”
Austin, whose three-disc “Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin” DVD collection was released last week, said he gives thanks every time he hears the glass breaking, the explosion of the crowd and fans coming out of their seats. He’s not able to deliver the way he used to, he admits, and that disappoints him. A serious neck injury led to his eventual ring departure several years ago.
“I just wish that when I went out I could give the people more. But I can’t,” said the 43-year-old Austin. “I’ve worked my (behind) off for it, but I appreciate it more than anybody in the world. Without those people, I would have never had the career or the lifestyle I have. It’s truly appreciated by me.”
Regarding his health, he said, “I feel real good right now. I have an active life, hunting and fishing. I’m making movies. Physically, I feel fine, and my past injuries don’t affect me filming movies. I can do what I need to do in the movies, and it doesn’t hold me back at all.”
–Several former WWE stars are taking advantage of the company’s offer to pay for drug and/or alcohol rehabilitation for any former WWE performers who need the service. Jake Roberts, Scott Hall and Ron Simmons are currently in the same rehabilitation clinic in Atlanta.
Roberts posted in a blog last week that he was a “dead man walking” and Vince McMahon saved his life.
“Still breathing, heart still beating, but my soul was dead and gone. So thank all of you, my friends, my family, my fans, especially Vince McMahon. Thank you for tossing me that life preserver. Yes, Vince you threw me a life preserver, and I grabbed hold of it.”
—Stephanie McMahon, daughter of WWE chairman Vince McMahon and wife of WWE star Triple H, is expecting the couple’s second child this summer.
–A potentially damaging article for Linda Bollea, estranged wife of Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea), is scheduled to be published in the National Enquirer. Her divorce attorney told his client that he believes her husband is behind the article and that he is set on portraying her in a bad light. He also said the reporter has a close relationship with the wrestler.
The tabloid piece, according to BuddyTV, will discuss Linda Bollea’s “erratic behavior, her drinking habits and verbally abusive language directed at both her husband and her children.”
–Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) is currently recovering at a spinal rehabilitation center in Marietta, Ga. Luger, who suffered a spinal stroke and collapsed in a hotel room Oct. 19 while in San Francisco for a wrestling convention, was paralyzed in both arms and both legs, but has regained some movement and feeling in recent weeks.
Nikita Koloff, who traveled with Luger on a Christian cruise last June, said in a wrestling-radio.com interview that he has made two visits to Luger since the health scare. Luger is able to move his legs and torso, but he remains in a wheelchair.
— George’s Sports Bar, 1300 Savannah Highway, will air the No Way Out pay-per-view at 8 p.m. tonight. Cover charge is $7.
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