Steve Austin On If He Was Shocked Vince McMahon Sold WWE
Steve Austin has revealed if he was surprised about Vince McMahon’s decision to sell WWE earlier this year.
When it comes to WWE’s Executive Chairman Vince McMahon, few superstars know him as well as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. There are many fans that would consider the Austin-McMahon rivalry in the Attitude Era to be the best feud in company history, but they also made a lot of money together and behind the scenes have been friends for three decades now.
It was on April 3rd when WWE officially announced that Endeavor acquired the company in a deal that combines UFC & WWE together as one entity worth over $21 billion. We also found out earlier this month that UFC & WWE together will be known as TKO Group Holdings.
In an interview with Jimmy Traina of the SI Media podcast, Steve Austin was asked if he was shocked about his old on-screen rival Vince McMahon selling WWE.
“I wasn’t shocked at all. It’s been in the grapevine and it happened and it kind of made sense. UFC did it, so why not WWE? Triple H went out there and cut that promo, saying that they’re not going anywhere, meaning the people that are running WWE.”
As he continued, Steve Austin spoke about how you need to have people with a wrestling mind running a company like WWE because it’s a unique business unlike anything else.
“I think it needs to come from a wrestling minded, family type thing or those key players. That’s a tricky business. Not everybody with a television background walks into the pro wrestling industry or the sports entertainment industry, whatever they want to call it, and can produce great results, so you keep the people running it because they know their fan base probably as good as anyone or better than anybody.”
Steve Austin also recalled a conversation he had with Vince McMahon many years ago about WWE becoming a publicly traded company.
“I remember when Vince took the company public years ago. I asked him, I said, ‘Vince, why do you want to do this?’ He said, ‘Steve, to legitimize the business.'”
Stone Cold also spoke about the incredible success of his Austin 3:16 shirt noting that he has likely sold enough shirts to make eight figures off it.