Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the most iconic wrestlers Vince McMahon ever created. The Texas Rattlesnake was WWE‘s guy during the Monday Night Wars and a major crowd puller.

The reason Stone Cold became so popular among the people, was because of his stubborn attitude towards only doing great matches with a strong buildup and story behind them.

He refused to have matches with legends and his colleagues if he thought that his chemistry wouldn’t work with them or if there was no story to tell with them.

Jim Ross, in the latest episode of his ‘Grilling JR’ podcast, dove into Austin’s career and revealed his backstage stories and attitude.

During the podcast, he made the revelation that Steve Austin turned down a match against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania.

Jim revealed that Austin did not think that Hulk and his style matched.

According to Jim, they both could have had a great match but Steve didn’t push for it.

He then stated:

“Austin was never about having good matches. Austin was about having great matches. He knew better than anybody else in the world who he could work the best with. Hogan wasn’t on that list.”

Later in the podcast, he added:

“Steve is a stubborn guy and he just didn’t feel it. That’s what we are trying to explain in meeting with these guys is that there is a new sheriff in town and his name is Stone Cold. It is not Hulkamania anymore.

But if we could use Hulkamania in a bitter way, in an angry way, maybe we could get a WrestleMania out of it. That was the idea but it never came to fruition.”

Steve Austin would go onto face Scott Hall at WrestleMania-18, while Hogan fought The Rock at the PPV.
Steve Austin and his stubborn attitude

The Hogan incident isn’t a solitary case in Austin’s career. Steve Austin has been notoriously stubborn throughout his career.

In 2002, he walked out of the company because the bookers had booked him to lose to Brock Lesnar at the King of the Ring event. Austin did not think that him jobbing to Lesnar would be beneficial, therefore he refused to do the match.

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He even got his WrestleMania 18 match’s result changed that caused Scott Hall to job to him instead.

The wrestling world is as much about the talent, as it is about the booking. The industry sees a lot of politics and Austin just played the political game well to maintain his fame and stardom.