Ex-WWE Referee Rebooks Steve Austin Hit & Run Angle
A former WWE referee thinks the “Stone Cold” Steve Austin hit-and-run storyline could have been handled differently.
At WWE Survivor Series 1999, Steve Austin was set for a huge triple threat match against the WWE Champion Triple H and The Rock. However, there was an angle that took place at the show that saw Austin get run over in the parking lot by a car that intentionally hit him.
The real reason for the storyline is that Austin would go on to have a serious neck operation that put him out of action for nearly a year.
When Austin came back in the fall of 2000, there was a big reveal about who did it. The story was that Rikishi did it for The Rock to help The Rock become a bigger star because Rikishi is related to The Rock as a distant cousin. That Austin-Rikishi feud didn’t take off, so WWE shifted it to say that Triple H got Rikishi to do it and it led to an intense Austin-Triple H rivalry.
Former WWE referee Mike Chioda spoke about the angle on his “Monday Mailbag” podcast saying that fans didn’t think of Rikishi as a threat that could beat Austin. Chioda went on to suggest that maybe somebody else could have been a bigger part of that story.
“I would have probably liked to have seen Vince [McMahon]. Those two were great, man. I mean, the way Vince always used his expressions and all his selling … and Stone Cold flipping off the boss right in his face and stunning him. It was great. Stone Cold coming down in beer trucks and hosing everyone down with beer. Who else gets to do that to their boss and get paid for it?”
Will Steve Austin Wrestle In WWE Again?
Steve Austin wrestled in the main event of WrestleMania 38 in 2022 on Night 1 to the surprise of many people since he was 57 years old at the time and it was 19 years after his last match. Since that match with Kevin Owens went so well, there’s a lot of speculation about Austin potentially wrestling again.
Now that CM Punk is back in WWE, there have been reports that the company may be interested in doing an Austin-Punk match due to their history as two of the biggest stars in WWE from different eras and a memorable video game promotion they were involved in about a decade ago.
It has been revealed also that Steve Austin has yet to be approached about a match like that with CM Punk, but there’s plenty of time until a major show like WrestleMania gets here. As WWE fans know, the phrase “never say never” definitely applies here.