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Steve Austin On What He Loves & Doesn’t Like About Today’s Wrestling Product

By John Canton • Published 21st May 2023
steve austin driving wrestlemania 38

Steve Austin is one of WWE’s greatest legends who loves certain about today’s wrestling business and also has some concerns as well.

When it comes to the pro wrestling business, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin has done it all as one of the greatest pro wrestlers ever. When he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, Vince McMahon referred to him as the greatest WWE superstar of all time.

As the biggest star of WWE’s Attitude Era, Steve Austin is often credited with being the driving force behind WWE’s turnaround that started with his major push to the top and led to record numbers at the box office. Instead of filling up half of an arena, there were sellouts every night because of Stone Cold.

While Steve Austin did wrestle at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, that was his first match in 19 years, so it’s not like he’s a current superstar. However, he does keep up with today’s business, which means the legendary Rattlesnake has strong opinions on what’s going on in WWE and elsewhere.

In an interview with Forbes, Austin praised the performance level of WWE stars for the great work they do in the ring but also thinks perhaps there is “too much” being done.

“The performance level has sped up so much, and the guys and gals are doing so much incredible stuff. It’s absolutely unbelievable. It’s kinda like—being such a big football fan—I was just watching clips of Mean Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I used to be a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. And you watch those greats from back then into what the guys are doing now, and the guys now are just so much quicker, faster. Of course everything is. The camera’s better.”

“These days, even though if I look at Attitude Era stuff, I look like I’m in slow motion watching what these superstars today are doing with better cameras and just better athletes. I really enjoy some of the sequences that they’re able to do. But then that also takes me back to one of the things that I don’t like is sometimes I think there’s too much being done.”

“It’s kind of like a double-edged sword, which one do you want? And on one hand, I respect all the athleticism, but sometimes I think it’s too much. But at the end of the day, everything evolves and gets kind of faster it seems. And I love the product, I love reality based storylines and I think the men and women that are participating in it today are much better athletes. There’s been better athletes decades ago, but I really think there’s some really great work being done in the ring right now.”

Steve Austin currently hosts an A&E TV show called Stone Cold Takes on America that airs on Sunday and is available on demand.