A Must-Read Vince McMahon/Steve Austin Podcast Report

Credit: Robert Leighty Jr.

Stone Cold Podcast: Vince McMahon

-This one peaked my interest when announced last week as Austin’s podcasts are always a load of fun, and after Punk’s bombshell I will be curious to see if Austin brings it up with Vince. I tend to think he will, but main question is will Vince address it in a meaningful manner. I also find it interesting that Punk gives his side of the story just days after it is announced McMahon will be on Austin’s show. Perhaps Punk was not only doing Cabana a favor, but doing one for Austin as well.

-We start with highlights of the Austin/McMahon rivalry and that serves as the introduction to the show.

-Austin welcomes us to the show and the first thing he asks is how the Network is doing. Vince says the Network is doing great as the numbers are good and they have a 95% satisfaction level.

-Next Austin asks about the hassles and brings up the problems with the UK Network feed, and McMahon admits there have been some stops and starts over there. He feels something should be ready by the start of the New Year, but doesn’t want to guarantee anything yet.

-Austin asks if the Network will ever met McMahon’s high expectations and Vince thinks that at some point it will. The goal is to give the audience what they want. Austin segues that into asking Vince if he is in tune with the WWE audience and if he is giving them what they want. He actually calls it pro-wrestling (where he comes from) and Vince jumps all over that as he says pro-wrestling is what his dad did. He spits out that they tell stories from all aspects of the show and not just what happens in the ring and the goal is to entertain. He admits that they do hit on some and miss on some. He puts over Wyatt, Ambrose, and the 6 Man Tag being the best parts of the show tonight.

-Austin jumps to RAW being 3 hours long and how that can be tiring. Vince puts over the crew and the performers for being up to pulling it off every week. Austin tells Vince that he wants more in ring wrestling and feels the opening talking segment takes too long at times and Vince agrees with him on that. He then says that 2 guys wrestling for wrestling sake without a story behind it doesn’t mean anything either.

-Next they discuss how the WWE is the only game in town and Austin briefly mentions TNA in passing which I am sure they absolutely love right now. Austin talks about how if guys piss someone off in the WWE then their career may be over because there isn’t really anywhere else to go, and McMahon mentions that they shouldn’t piss anyone off then. McMahon talks about how this new group isn’t as confrontational (like those in Attitude Era) and isn’t sure they want to reach for the brass ring as much. He feels Cena was the last guy to truly reach for the brass ring (oh man is this thing begging for Austin to toss Punks name out there), but he does feel some of the newer guys want to reach for it (Wyatt, Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns all mentioned).

-Austin asks why this roster isn’t as ambitious and Vince things just this generation as they are afraid to fail. He feels what they do now with social media and television gives the newer talent tools the group like Austin never had. Austin issues a challenge to the current WWE Superstars and wants them to go out on a limb. They both agree that they need more depth with the roster.

-He asks Vince what he is looking for in a guy or girl that wants to get into the WWE. Vince says he wants someone with charisma, heart, strong work effort, and someone that wants to learn every day. He does want some verbal and physical skills and have to have a passion for the business.

-Austin brings up how they used to watch matches behind the curtain at MSG and when a guy got a good pop Vince mentioned he hoped the guy continued to get over. It made Austin realize that Vince doesn’t just wave a magic wand over a guy to make him a star, and Vince says the fans decide who becomes a star and who doesn’t.

-Austin brings up Cesaro and wants to know what he is missing that is keeping him from being a star. Vince says that he isn’t connecting yet with the audience (WrestleMania XXX crowd begs to differ) and thinks he is lacking some verbal skills. He does call him an extraordinary physical talent, but he is lacking the it factor. Austin stands up for Cesaro and talks about how fans were getting behind him and they stuck him with Heyman which killed the momentum he had. Vince isn’t certain how to answer that question and just says he listens to the audience and a lot of people’s advice, but he hopes Cesaro can get to that next level.

-Austin talks about all the writers and wants to know how it got complicated as there weren’t that many when he was on top during the Attitude Era. Vince mentions that it is a different company today as they grew and that no one man has the answers so they need more writers and executives. He says he can’t do it all with the help of Patterson like he used to do. He talks about how he used to having booking meeting with Patterson by a pool and they would shove people into the pool as a joke.

-That leads to Austin telling a story of Shane McMahon pushing Vince into the pool one day. Vince gets a laugh out of the story and that makes Austin ask what’s up with Shane. Vince says that Shane is happy and working on a lot of projects in Japan. Austin wants to know why Shane left the business and Vince says it was a mutual decision. He admits it is hard to work in a family business and that at times not everyone is going to get along and Shane had other options come his way.

-Austin mentions that Vince’s father never wanted his son in the business so he asks if he had reservations about his kids getting into the business. Vince says he never pushed them into the business and that both kids wanted to do it, so he let them, but made sure they worked their way into it. He discusses how Shane had to work in the merchandise warehouse and then asked for a raise that Vince didn’t give him. This leads to Shane quitting for a time and making more money as a brick mason.

-Austin brings up how Vince got his start in the business because an announcer asked for a raise. Vince tells the story and his father fired the announcer who threatened to walk if he didn’t get a raise. Vince was proud of his dad, but then asked him what he was going to do. He looked at Vince and told him that he was going to be the announcer and he was going to do a good job. He told him that he would put him with someone that would help him out and that was Arnold Skaaland who was a man of few words.

-Yes or no question time and here we go as Austin asks Vince if he wants to talk about CM Punk. Vince says that he wants to apologize for Punk getting his termination papers on his wedding day and says it was just coincidence. Other than that the only thing he wants to say is that many people in the past have been disgruntled, but he feels that Punk may regret a few things one day. He does say he hopes that one day they will be able to work together again much like he and Austin worked things out and even he and Hogan worked things out. Vince talks about putting his ego to the side and will always try to do what is best for business.

-Austin asks if that means he would be willing to do business with Punk again and he says sure before Austin cuts him off and asks if he listened to the interview. He mentions that he didn’t listen to the podcast and he just heard through what others told him. He says that there are two sides to every story.

-Austin brings up how he was in a similar situation when he was asked to put over Brock Lesnar on an episode of RAW with no build. They talk about how Austin was hard to work with and Vince says that at times Austin would just flat out to refuse to do things and then didn’t have an alternative. Vince says that Austin did have other ideas, but needed some prodding. Vince mentions that Austin worked hard even if he was an ass and Punk is the same way.

-Back to the Brock ordeal and Austin no shows because of the creative. He admits it was the worst professional decision he ever made. He was so pissed that he wouldn’t return Vince’s calls for months and then eventually JR mediated things. They met on the 30th floor of a hotel in Houston and Austin thought it was a hit as he was the first man in the room, but they settled things and he came back to work.

-Austin says that JR was the key into getting them back on the same page and asks if there is someone like Jim Ross around that can get things between Punk and Vince back on the same page. Vince thinks that Punk has some lack of communication skills and that he is a loner, and he thinks if they had someone like JR then it could have been handled, but it didn’t and once lawyers got involved things got out of hand.

-Back to Austin walking out and they tell story of how Vince felt he needed to fine Austin for walking out on the company. Vince tossed out a fine of $650,000 and Austin about lost his mind. He felt it was more than a slap on the wrist like Vince mentioned and tossed out $250,000 and Vince went with that instead. He wants to know if he had said $125,000 if Vince would have accepted and Vince says he doesn’t know now. He talks about how walking out only hurts the fans and they have to make examples of guys who do that so that others don’t do the same.

-Austin talks about how he let the guys down and he tells all the top guys now that he did pay a price for his actions. They both admit that Austin deserved the fine and Vince says that Austin owned up to things and always had good communication skills. He goes back to Punk not having those skills and thinks Austin had advantage of having someone to communicate with even if it wasn’t Vince himself.

-Talk shifts to The Undertaker and how he was one of the main guys Austin wanted to apologize to when he came back. That leads to the Streak ending at WrestleMania XXX and Austin says he was just as shocked as everyone else. Vince says nobody wants to give back to the business more than Taker (calling him by his real name) and that the decision was made because there wasn’t anyone else on the roster that could have gotten as big of a rub. He does admit that he made the decision to end the streak and Taker had no problem with it. He does say he thinks it came as a shock to Taker and Vince says it was a hard decision to make. He felt it was the right call because the goal was to make Brock even hotter as he could brag about ending the streak for years on end.

-Austin rolls with that topic and wants to know why Brock isn’t on TV even as the WWE Champion. Vince doesn’t think he needs to be on TV more than he is because he is a special attraction. He does say that per the contract they have with each other Brock only has so many dates. He doesn’t think the title is the draw and that it is the performer. He thinks too much Brock kicking ass would kill the babyface side of the roster. He talks about how you can’t rely on one match these days and brings up how there are more than one Main Event at WrestleMania (not if you ask Punk, and I wonder if that was a little jab back at him).

-Austin asks if we will ever see Randy Savage in the Hall of Fame, and Vince says absolutely. He asks if it will be in the near future and Vince says soon, but doesn’t know if it will be this year. I will say this was kind of awkward as Vince didn’t elaborate much and Austin seemed kind of dumbfounded by it before switching to the next subject. Let the conspiracy theories begin.

-Now talk shifts to Sting and how they did battle during the Monday Night Wars. Vince says he made a hell of a first impression and he feels his character is one that doesn’t need to be seen all the time. He does think that Sting will be part of WrestleMania. Austin mentions he was on every week and why a lot of guys aren’t now. He wants to know if because of contracts, and Vince says partly, but mainly because it is a different time now.

-Talk turns towards the Monday Night War and Austin mentions it was hardcore competition. Austin asks if it was Vince’s goal to put WCW out of business. Vince says that Ted wanted to hurt the other guy, while Vince was only concerned in helping himself. He discusses how hot the n.W.o was, but he felt the WWE had passion at the time and just hoped they could hang around until the audience caught up with the fact they were the better show.

-Austin asks if it was a mistake to put his main competition out of business and how he has no competition (all due respect to TNA as Austin mentioned). Vince thinks they had competition from everything on TV as is his standard response and Austin cuts through that by asking specifically about sports entertainment competition. Vince feels that WCW and WWE were burning so hot that it was a matter of who was going to fade first and it was WCW. He thinks they ran out of ideas and had inmates running the asylum and they had to tap-out.

-They bring up Vince taking over for his dad and how he had a global vision. Austin says he put territories out of business, and McMahon says they put themselves out of business. He explains he offered to buy out the territories and the first one he approached was Verne Gagne. All these guys had money stashed away, but didn’t want to put it back into the business. He on the other hand kept reinvesting into the product to make things better.

-Austin wants to know how he can compete with himself and asks if can live on talent from NXT. Vince thinks they definitely can and talk goes back to Vince offering to buy out the territories and the only guy he couldn’t get to was Bill Watts. He was able to pounce though when Watts sold out to Crockett because he wasn’t the brightest guy. Back to the question as he again brings up that he has to constantly compete with anything on television or any live event.

-Austin brings up Jim Ross again and asks if there is any heat between the two of them. Vince says that on his end he doesn’t think there is any heat. He feels that he and Jim work well together and he feels that he and JR will work again one day. Vince talks about how JR wanted to leave Connecticut and get back to Oklahoma and admits he made Jim pay his dues. He does say he never asks his talent to do anything that he wouldn’t do. JR came to Vince and wanted to go back to Oklahoma because he was burned out, and Austin says he will discuss those things with JR on a later podcast.

-They jump to the Austin/McMahon rivalry and Austin says nobody has ever reflected back to him as well as Vince. He asks why the chemistry was so good between the two. Vince says he understood that people viewed Austin as a kind of redneck and Vince would not be classified that way even though his background says otherwise. He comes from a common man background and he is still that same guy that grew up in a trailer park. He goes off topic and talks about how they have to have something for every kind of person to identify with and he does say he will tie this back to the original question. He hated someone thinking they were better than him as a child and hated people flaunting money so he knew where the Austin character was coming from and knew what would make the best character to go against Austin.

-Steve tells him that they have a minute left on the Network. Vince thanks Austin for having him on the show and Austin says if they go long then he wants to go even longer to use on his podcast. Vince tells them to let them go longer on the Network. They discuss the cage mage and Austin talks about how uncoordinated Vince was, and Vince laughs at how he always took a horrible Stunner. Austin tells hilarious story about how he always missed Vince’s stomach with the kick before the Stunner and would often catch him in the balls. Vince laughs about it and felt it was always worth it because of the high they were on with the crowd.

-Austin brings up how Vince always wanted to be a pro-wrestler, but his dad wouldn’t let him in the business. Austin says he loved Vince’s announcing even if he went off the rails at times, and then eventually he got his chance to step in the ring. He asks Vince what it felt like when he stepped in the ring the first time. He mentions his dad wanted him to be a business man as he didn’t think you could do that and be a star in the ring. His dream was always to step in the ring and he had the opportunity and it was one of greatest thrills of his life.

-They discuss the Ringmaster idea and Austin knows Vince didn’t see a Superstar, but he took the job as he was only working once a week in ECW (though he loved what Paul did for him). Austin blows through his rise to the top of the company and asks Vince what it was like for him when he stepped in the ring. Vince says it was a thrill and loved using the psychology of throwing the truth back in the faces of the fans. He always wanted to be a wrestler and it was a dream come true when it finally happened for him.

-Austin brings up St Valentine’s Day Massacre and asks Vince to discuss the cage bump through the table. Vince says he had the biggest bruise on his ass that went down to the back of his knees. He wouldn’t trade the bump for anything even if it sucked landing on the table.

-They discuss the double turn at Mania 13 and the idea was mentioned with Vince, Bret, and Austin in a room. Bret and Austin were okay with the idea and Austin mentions that he originally found out about the match while watching TV on his couch. It was Bret’s idea for Austin to be busted open and Austin made sure to check with Vince to make sure it was ok. Vince was all for the way the match was booked, and they ended up tearing the roof off the building. He mentions that he bled all over Lawler’s paper work and that Lawler still has those papers to this day. Austin asks Vince what he was thinking seeing that much blood at a time when they weren’t using color as much as they would in later years. Vince says that he was probably a little pissed off at the time, but he could tell the audience was enjoying what they were seeing so he kind of just rolled with it even if it was against policy.

-Austin says they have four minutes left and asks again if Vince is really giving the WWE fans what they want every week. He wants to know what the future is for the WWE. Vince says they are holding their own in the ratings even if not nearly as good as when they were fighting with WCW. He does feel the ratings can get better. Austin asks if things need to change because audience has a shorter attention span and Vince thinks a little to do with that. Vince knows they compete with a lot, but he doesn’t think he is out of touch with what people want, and he jokes that he can kick your ass in a gym which Austin agrees with.

-Final question as Austin wants to know what WWE fans can do to get Vince to give them what they want. He says he doesn’t listen to critics and only listens to the audience, so they just need to be an active audience. Austin mentions they can send feedback on WWE twitter and on Vince’s own twitter and Vince goes along with that.

-Final final question now as Austin asks Vince when he is going to ride off in the sunset. Vince says he is working as many hours now as ever. He mentions he enjoys the business now and that he is healthy and he feels he hasn’t lost touch with the audience even if his critics think otherwise. He keeps working because he wants to be there to find another Stone Cold.

-They talk about picking things up again on a future podcast and then thank each other as the show ends.

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