Growing up, like many children, I was enamoured by the world of wrestling. The WWF, as it was known back then, was home to some of the classic wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Kane or the Undertaker, but growing up, I had two favourites. One of them was Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock (yes, I could smell exactly what the Rock was cooking – and it smelled delicious), but owning an equal property in my heart’s real estate was Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Of course, by the time I reached my teenage years, I’d figured out that wrestling was fake, but in my opinion, that added to the artistry and theatricality of the show. Even though the death-defying spectacles in front of me turned out to be just stunts, that doesn’t mean there weren’t dangerous in any way, and speaking in his podcast, Stone Cold Steve Austin revealed that a particular stunt almost killed the legendary wrestler.
If you happened to grow up in the 90s, you’ll probably remember that there was a massive emphasis in our television shows on the concept of “attitude”. The Power Rangers had it, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air had it, and you can bet that Stone Cold Steve Austin had it. In a totally extreme display of his attitude, however, Stone Cold Steve Austin revealed in his podcast The Steve Austin Show that he almost lost his life back in 1999.
On an episode of Monday Night Raw, the Rock was meant to hold a funeral for his rival Stone Cold Steve Austin, but Stone Cold crashed the memorial with a monster truck, destroying the Rock’s Lincoln Town Car in the process. The world of wrestling is full of barely-believable storylines like this one, but on this occasion, Stone Cold Steve Austin found himself in a predicament.
“Well hell, I didn’t know how to drive a monster truck. So there I was in the parking lot, driving the Austin 3:16 monster truck. It was a bad ass dodge with an alcohol/methanol motor and about 1800 horsepower. Anyway, I learn to drive the monster truck after about 15-20 minutes in the parking lot. The thing about me I can drive anything in about fifteen minutes. Don’t give a s*** what it is, I can drive it.”
After his very quick crash course on how to drive a monster truck, Stone Cold Steve Austin drove his car into the arena, destroying the Lincoln Town Car on live TV. While he executes the manoeuvre perfectly, a miscalculation of the angles of the cars almost led to the situation becoming more real than anyone could have expected.
“So I go into the back door of the arena and I’m in a holding room with a couple of curtains in front of me. The monster truck was loud as f*** and that 1800 horsepower motor is churning out exhaust fumes. So I’m in this room and they shut the door behind me. It was about a three minutes commercial break, so the whole time the people back home are watching commercials, I’m in a room, inside a truck, breathing methanol/alcohol fumes — I could barely breathe. I was just begging for the show to come back on air so I could charge out in the audience and get a breath of fresh air. I’m breathing all those exhaust fumes, mother***er, I was going to crash that gate doing 98 [miles per hour] and go and take my own cue and haul a** into the arena, if they hadn’t of cued me when they did- I was about to die.”
This story (as well as the wrestling narrative that inspired it) is just one of the many examples of how nuts the WWE got in the mid to late 90s. It also showed how determined Vince McMahon (the CEO of the WWE) was to get the right shot; according to Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Lincoln destroyed in that show was brand new (costing $30,000).
Nowadays, the WWE has taken a backseat somewhat to MMA and the exploits of the UFC, but in its heyday, wrestling was about as popular as anything else on television, and there are many people around the world that still enjoy it today. It may be more of a live show than a sport, but while the spectacle is scripted and staged, Stone Cold Steve Austin’s story shows the danger involved in some of the stunts is as real as it comes.