Stone Cold Steve Austin News

Stone Cold Steve Austin was interviewed this week by Great Britan's The Sun. Here are highlights:

Austin on having one more match: “I take that never say never approach to having a last match. For a while I just said: ‘No, it will never happen' but who knows? And I’m not saying this to get everybody up. It would have to be the most perfect set up in the whole world and all the stars to align for it to happen. The chances are few and far between but could it? Damn. Maybe."

On Hulk Hogan slamming him: “He’s just a bitter, insecure guy. I give him all the credit in the world, because I’ve watched a lot of his career unfold and the Hulkamania thing was one of the biggest things ever. But believe me I’ve been around the entertainment business since the back end of 1989, and if there’s one thing you’re going to find out it’s that if you’ve got thin skin you’re probably in the wrong business.

So there’s not a damn thing Hogan can say to rile me up or charge me up. I’m secure in the career that I’ve had and everything I did. It makes me laugh when he’s got to do that, because I really think it makes him look like a chump.”

Steve Austin recently chatted with The Miami Herald.

He talked about his new DVD, being offered a spot at WrestleMania 24, the "Stone Cold" Shark Boy gimmick in TNA, Mr. Kennedy and more. Here are some highlights:

On his new WWE DVD release:
"There are five or six of me on DVD already which covers a lot, but this one fills the gaps. It could have had some music, and there should have been more extras on it, but I'm happy with it."

On being offered a spot at WrestleMania 24 this year:
"There was a pitch thrown at me for WrestleMania [24 in Orlando], but I turned it down. I'd like to go to the Hall of Fame and see the guys get inducted. They got enough talent in WWE that they don't need me for WrestleMania, and it's not my desire to go back into the ring. If I really needed the money, I'd go back in the ring, but I've been conservative with my money and invested wisely. I have fond memories of the business, and I love the business, but I don't miss it."

On the "Stone Cold" Shark Boy gimmick in TNA Wrestling:
"I've heard about it. It doesn't anger me. If a guy is able to make a living on a rip-off, a spoof, making fun of me, whatever. I'm still with WWE. More power to him."

On Mr. Kennedy and his role in WWE:
"I saw back in the day, Ken Kennedy vs. Batista on TV. Batista is a good, big man, but he can be ornery and off at times. They had a really good match. I called Ken up out of the blue and said that was a heck of a match. We started being friends. He was a big fan of Stone Cold. He would call me and present me with ideas and questions. I give him my thoughts. I think there are too many voices, too many people in his head right now with WWE [too many chefs stirring the pot]. He's gonna be a big star. They just need to let him alone and let him do his thing."

Read the full interview with Stone Cold now.

Below, Stone Cold Steve Austin talks about his last movie, The Condemned:

On using his WWE persona for The Condemned:
"This is my first major part in a movie and I just tried to do as good a job as I possibly could. I wasn't dialogue heavy in The Condemned - we know that - and I hired an acting coach. I tried to be as far away from Stone Cold Steve Austin as I could and a lot of people said it was just an overgrown version of Stone Cold. I disagree.

It was light-years away from that... I think that with anything that you do, you get better with repetition -- the same with wrestling and acting. I have a long way to go and, hopefully, I'll get more swings at the plate to get a chance to try and improve."

Austin on getting involved with the project:
"The script came to me in Los Angeles. An agent brought it to me and I took it to Vince [McMahon], and he liked it. It wasn't that great of a script in the beginning and Scott Wiper re-wrote it nine times to get it to its final stages.

Then he started tailoring it to me towards the end. But when the script originally came to me, they wanted me to play the part of Ewan McStarley, which Vinnie Jones played. But once Vince got behind it, I played Jack Conrad and that's pretty much how it all came about.

As for the humor in the film, in my personal life I just laugh my head off all day. If you're going to get a laugh out of The Condemned, it had to be dry, dead pan humor because there wasn't a whole lot of funny 'ha, ha' situations."

Click here to read the full interview.

Steve Austin gave a speech to wrestlers at Summerslam, one that didn’t go over to well with the wrestlers.

Lordsofpain.net says Austin made three main points saying that talent dressed like slobs in public and they need to dress and carry themselves like professionals. He also said that the company has no superstars and someone needs to step-up to the plate.

Austin ended with a couple stories of how things were back when he was around. After the lengthy speech, wrestlers felt Austin had become a puppet for Vince McMahon.

Below Jeanie Williams - the ex-wife of Stone Cold Steve Austin - pleads for the industry to change its ways before more young grapplers join the 105 who have already passed away in the last 10 years...

English born Jeanie has seen all sides of the business.

After meeting wrestler and long-term boyfriend Chris Adams, she left Southend-On-Sea to fight all over America as Lady Blossom, including a stint in major federation WCW.

She later became a wrestler's wife, having two children with grappling legend Austin. They were married through his glory years in the WWE and she even gave Steve the Stone Cold name that helped shoot him to fame.

But alongside the glamour, Jeanie saw the effects of steroids and other drugs first hand. Chris was a major abuser of drugs and alcohol and was killed in self-defense by a pal.

Jeanie divorced Steve after wrestling's travel schedule got too much to take. He also had a dark side and was later accused of physically assaulting his two subsequent partners.

She is now back in Southend and is a full time mom, writing the following into the Britain Sun:

I decided to speak out after reading about the shocking amount of wrestlers who have died.

I was saddened by both the number and how many of them I knew. Brian Pillman and Rick Rude were especially good friends with Steve.

Wrestling needs to sort out its steroid problem, as well as the schedule which forces people to take other drugs, so more don't die.

Wrestling is like a beauty pageant for women, the guys are competing to have the best body to get the best spots, which often leads to steroid abuse.

Click here to read the full interview.

In light of the Chris Benoit tragedy, Debra Williams has chosen to speak up about her experiences with a certain WWE superstar. She relayed them to a FOX affiliate in Colorado...

"The domestic and drug abuse is out of hand in the WWE and something needs to be done about it," said Debra Williams, ex-wife of the World Wrestling Entertainment star Stone Cold Steve Austin, who says she saw her husband at the time take steroids.

When she first began working with the Atlanta-base World Championship Wrestling organization. Williams had been married to Steve McMichaels, the one-time Chicago Bear football player.

When that group was acquired by WWF now WWE, she divorced and married Austin.

"In the last ten years, 60 wrestlers under age 45 have died... all in the prime of their lives. Big strong men, who somehow die with little or no investigation of the organization that encourages performers to use muscle enhancing drugs," said Williams.

Steroids have been linked to the deaths of several professional wrestlers in recent years. Eddie Guerrero, one of Benoit's best friends, died in 2005 from heart failure linked to long-term steroid use.

The father of Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig blamed steroids and painkillers for Hennig's drug overdose death in 2003. Davey Boy Smith, the "British Bulldog," died in 2002 from heart failure that a coroner said was probably caused by steroids.

The WWE, based in Stamford, Conn., issued a statement Tuesday evening saying steroids "were not and could not be related to the cause of death."

But "roid rage" is common among those who take the drugs to make their bodies bigger and stronger. And it appears as though Chris Benoit was involved with them after all.

Ms. Williams claims she and Nancy Benoit's stories are very similar.

Both sought help from law enforcement because of domestic abuse. In 2003, Benoit sought a divorce from Chris Benoit saying he physically abused her; she also asked the courts for a restraining order. Williams did the same thing on the third occasion when she says she was attacked by Stone Cold.

Williams says, like Benoit, Austin all but forced her to write a letter to authorities saying her complaint was a mistake. But in Williams’ case, the courts put Austin on probation for a year. In return, Ms. Williams was placed under a gag order, forcing her to remain silent about the "dark side" of professional wrestling, filled with drugs, booze and domestic abuse.

"If only I had spoken up sooner, maybe Nancy and her little boy would be alive today... that's why I'm going public now, something has to change!"

Like John Cena before him, Steve Austin appeared on The Howard Stern Show this week. Here's a recap:

- Howard promoted his upcoming segment by saying he hears Steve was married and divorced again and that he should have listened to Howard years ago and that Austin is a loser at love.

- Howard said he actually enjoyed the movie Condemned and said that Steve is allowed to be "Stone Cold" again because he is working with Vince McMahon.

- Howard kidded that he was surprised the movie looked good because he felt Vince knew nothing about films, but this film was all action and it worked.

- Steve Austin said this character is closest to his real personality.

- Howard discussed Steve's love life and Steve said he couldn't talk about his last relationship due to legal issues.

- Austin said the script came to him first and he was the one that brought it to Vince.

- They discussed Steve's on/off relationship with Vince and that he left over creative decisions on WWE RAW.

- They discussed Austin's love of hunting and that, while hunting, Jim Ross contacted him and that opened the door to his return.

- Steve said Vince has always be straight when it came to money and that Vince never lied and pays everyone what they are worth.

- Howard asked Steve if he hated Hulk Hogan. Steve said he did not hate Hogan, but felt the match would suck because of Hogan's style of being non aggressive and Steve said he would need to win if that match would ever happen.

- Austin brought up TNA Wrestling and discussed whatever Hogan is doing and said that he doesn't think anybody is competition to Vince, but thinks competition is good for the industry.

- Discussed The Rock. Austin said he has not heard from him in years and has no idea what he is up to. Steve said he doubts he'd play a "gay character" like Rock did and that Steve wants to be an action hero and does not care if he is typecast.

- Howard predicted this film would do well between US box office, foreign and DVD.

- Eric The Midget called and asked Steve if he will be part of WWE TV/PPV's and said he has a long-term deal but won't ever be a regular again. He said he "might" be at Wrestlemania 24 because its' a huge event.

- Austin put over Ken Kennedy as a great talker and up and comer.

- A caller confused Debra with Sable and asked Austin if Brock Lesnar was living with his ex.

- Robin asked if the other two movies did well and Steve said he did not know numbers but knew John Cena "kicked ass" in DVD rentals and was number-one several weeks. Howard confirmed that that was true and is where the money is for action films.

Below are excerpts of an interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin, focusing on the making of The Condemned.

How did you come to the project?
Steve Austin: The project came to me actually; I had moved to Los Angeles about three years ago to kind of get into the acting thing, and two years ago the script found me, an agent brought it to me, and wanted me to play the part of McStarley, Vinnie Jones' character, and they said, 'We'll basically put a named actor into the Jack Conrad role.' And I said, 'Let me read it,' and I read it and it sounds good, I took it to Vince, he'd already started the WWE Films division, I was originally slated to - The Marine was written for me, but when they got ready to shoot I didn't think I really liked it that much, so I was going to wait. So anyway, when I took this to Vince, Vince said, 'Ok, we'll do it; but if I'm getting behind this, and I'm going to put my money out you're going to play Jack Conrad.' That's how that happened.

What's Vince McMahon like to work for as a movie producer?
Steve Austin: You know what, hands on in the initial phases of reading the script many times. When this script came to me we gave the original writer three different swings at it, and he couldn't really take it any further, bringing into the picture Scott Wiper, the writer/director, who rewrote it nine times and did a phenomenal job on it, is a wonderful director. So Vince McMahon is hands on then, but when it comes time to direct the movie, Scott Wiper was the director, so he trusted him to make all the decisions as far as casting and everything else, and of course, he worked with Joel Simon and Mike Lake out there, but that's when he stopped being hands on and let Scott Wiper, the director, do his job.

What were the challenges for you filming on location, we heard from the director you guys were on an island where there was hardly any amenities.
Steve Austin: The lack of amenities was okay for me, because just from growing up in south Texas and hunting and fishing and camping. I pretty much stayed in my bus most of the time anyway, because I didn't feel like driving back into town, so to me it was almost like being paid to camp out and make a movie. Tough locations, some treacherous conditions as far as fighting on the side of cliffs, in the river gorges and slippery rocks and stuff like that. But it was all real safe, challenging I think for everybody, but because I enjoy the outdoors so much I loved it.

What about working with Vinnie - that last fight scene was intense.
Steve Austin: The fight scene was a great fight scene; I remember we had two days blocked off for that and it took eight days to do, because we were standing there in the riverbed, we had these special boots with moleskin on the bottom of them so we wouldn't slip around so much, which didn't really help that much, but we'd fight for ten minutes and the rain would come down, and we'd stand in the river for three hours with umbrellas, and we'd get a break, and so then we'd start fighting again, and with no stretching the rain would just stop, so you'd go up completely cold and start fighting again.

I really enjoyed that fight scene and it was fun working with Vinnie because the guy's a riot. He's a walking wise guy, so we had a lot of fun pulling jokes behind the scenes, but he's a great guy to work with and I had fun fighting with him. I think he got a couple bumps and bruises and a few knots, that was my fault, but that's kind of the way The Condemned happened.

To read the full interview, click here.

Thanks to Joseph Daoud and PWInsider.com for the following recap of a Stone Cold Steve Austin interview on The Hour with George Stropolopolis on CBC:

- They started with a 90 second clip of his career and a clip from the movie The Condemned.

- He said that wrestling was his life long dream and his role model was Dusty Rhodes.

- Acting was opened to him during the peek of the Austin Era but he wanted to stay with the WWE.

- He said that most of his money came from merchandise sales.

- Wanted to prove WCW wrong when they said that he isn't marketable.

- Did 13 Episodes of Nash Bridges and they wanted to do a spin off of the character.

- Said that his stepfather made him a better person

- Hates that some people let the fame go to their heads. He says he stays humble.

- After the break he said that he watched the SummerSlam 1997 incident 30 to 40 times a day, but now he watches it every now and then to get a reality check.

- Said he was in the ring wrestling The Undertaker when he got the news of Owen's death.

- He said he could work as a top star for two years at WWE's schedule, but says he isn't and will never be at the 120% he was before and he is only now 99%.

Stone Cold Steve Austin is getting revved up for the Samsung 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race on April 15.

The star of The Condemned will take over duties as Grand Marshall of the race. The Texas Rattlesnake will participate in events the week leading up to the race at the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Click here to read the rest of this WWE.com article.