Steve Austin Refused To Lose To Brock Lesnar – Disobeyed Vince McMahon

The night after WrestleMania in 2002, Austin defeated Scott Hall, a young stud named Brock Lesnar debuted.

It was evident from the first time he entered the arena with Paul Heyman in tow, he was going to be a big deal if he wasn’t already.

After only two months on the main roster, Lesnar entered the King of the Ring tournament – which he won – and Vince McMahon had he idea of having Lesnar defeat him in a qualifying match-up.

Brock Lesnar is one of the most intimidating wrestlers ever and in his prime, he had a physique like no one else

When the WWE boss tasked Jim Ross with informing Austin this was the plan for Raw the next day, Austin simply told them he wasn’t coming.

“And the time they wanted me to fly down to Atlanta for Monday Night Raw and put over Brock Lesnar,” Austin told Sport Bible.

“The night before, I was working in Columbus, Georgia, working with Ric Flair in a cage, so I was like a kid in a candy store working with the GOAT, so of course I didn’t show up.

“Because it wasn’t time for me to do the favors yet for Brock in an unadvertised match in a tournament-style TV match whereas hey, man, I love Brock Lesnar, I’d lose to him any day of the week, but build it up so we can all make money off of it and it’s going to mean something.

“And when you get a guy red hot, and I just had [Hulk] Hogan on the podcast, and I’ll put myself there, but when you get guys who really, really draw stupid money, it’s a very delicate balance that you just don’t take stupid liberties with or you’ll kill it off and you can never recreate it.

“So I was very protective of myself, maybe too much so, but it took me seven and a half years to get there, so no-one was going to yank the carpet out from underneath my feet, not even Vince [McMahon].”