THE STONE COLD TRUTH (35 page)

35
Eric Bischoff Comes Back into Stone Cold’s Life

F
or a long time there was heat between me and Bischoff because he had fired me back in 1995 when my arm got hurt in WCW. It wasn’t just that he had fired me, which would have been bad enough because suddenly I didn’t have a job or a lot of money coming in. But, on top of it, he fired me over the damn phone. That was the part that pissed me off the most.

I don’t give a damn that he fired me. I understand being fired. But respect me enough to do it to my face.

So for the longest time I didn’t see Eric Bischoff. He saw fit to run me down a couple of times on WCW television while WCW was pushing Goldberg, but that was his job. So finally he came to WWE and I was thinking, Oh, look, they brought ol’ Eric in. Never say never in this business.

I wasn’t thinking payback though. I had already left the company and walked away. Some months later, after I met with Vince, it turned out that WWE and Bischoff were going to be down in Bandera, Texas, shooting some video vignettes to tease my return. I wasn’t in them, but they were about Eric looking for Stone Cold, as on TV he promised Vince he’d deliver me to
Raw
or lose his job. It’s funny how we twist real life into our wrestling story lines, and rewrite history, but that’s what makes them so much fun.

So I figured, Okay, I’ll just go and see what’s going on.

I got there and saw him, and I had no intention of blasting the guy or anything like that. I already knew what I was going to do. This wasn’t going to be one of those situations where I acted like a fool. I wasn’t mad at him anymore. It was water under the bridge.

So I saw him standing off to the side and I said, “Hey, man, can I talk to you for a minute?” I pulled him over where we could speak privately and I said, “Hey, Eric. I guess a lot of people think there’s gonna be a lot of heat between you and me. You probably think so too. And for a long time, I was pretty mad at you for firing me the way you did.

“But that’s a long time ago. I’ve been watching you since you came to WWE, and I think you’re doing a great job. You know, what happened happened. That’s in the past. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s all right with you, let’s wipe the slate clean and start from zero right here and put all
that other crap behind us. I got no animosity toward you, I’m not mad at you.” And you could see a sea of relief wash over him.

Eric answered, “That would be great with me, Steve.” And we shook hands.

We were headed toward the Pay-Per-View
No Way Out
on February 23, 2003, where we would finally work a match against each other. Eric called me a few times to talk about some ideas and stuff like that.

I said, “Has anyone said anything to you because of the old heat between you and me and that I might try to hurt you?”

And he said, “No, nobody’s said anything.”

I said, “I’m just telling you right now, Eric, I am stiff, and I haven’t kicked or punched anybody in seven months. My timing might be off, but I’m not intentionally going to try to mess you up or hurt you.”

He said, “Okay, it’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

Then we got to the match. As Eric had said, it worked out fine.

I know I caught him with a couple of really good stiff shots. Hey, it was my first time back and I needed it to look vicious and look good. But I certainly wasn’t trying to take advantage of the guy. I know I gave him a couple of pretty good punches and a few stiff kicks, and he was pretty sore the next day, from what I understand. I’m sure some of the boys thought I had roughed Bischoff up on purpose. But that was not the case. I was rusty and I naturally work a little snug anyway.

But the hatchet was buried. I have a lot of respect for the guy for being tough enough to handle the beating. It all worked out and it was a good return for Stone Cold. I gave him a couple of Stunners and then pulled his arm up off the mat before the three-count, basically telling the audience I wanted to punish him some more. That was cool.

Still, Eric handled it very well. He never bitched one time about me landing spuds on him. He might have said something to someone else, but he never called me aside and said, “Hey, you knocked the hell out of me!”

Bischoff definitely wasn’t one of my favorite people at WCW. When he first got there I liked the guy as an announcer, but when he got his power and the executive job and fired me, it all changed.

But, as it turned out, it was all for the best for me professionally and financially, and it made a good story line for us when he got to WWE. I now enjoy working with Eric as we have a lot of chemistry together.

36
The Fans Welcome Back Stone Cold

E
ven before
No Way Out,
I had started doing paid personal appearances again. Those come from exposure on TV. When that dries up, it means nobody wants to see you.

That’s not what happened in my case, thanks to the great fans out there, who I’ll always appreciate and remember. When I came back to WWE and said I’d do a program with Bischoff, leading to The Rock at
WrestleMania XIX,
the office allowed me to start doing some of those personal appearances without officially acknowledging that I was back with the company yet.

Even though I was gone for eight months, for Stone Cold’s fans it was like I never left. Anywhere it was announced that Steve Austin would be appearing for autographs, it was a madhouse. I’m not bragging about that. It just makes me happy and extremely proud of the feelings my fans had for Stone Cold. They all wanted me to come back and kick someone’s ass, and they didn’t care who!

I was kind of lucky on that one. I loved doing these personal appearances and want to do more. I met literally thousands of fans all over the country and signed tons of autographs. I hugged babies. I posed for pictures. I was friendly and approachable—it was like I was these people’s family. I loved being back with the fans and seeing so many turn out at malls, hockey games, baseball games, sports conventions, stuff like that. I want to thank my booking agent and good friend, Rich Minzer, for beating the bushes for me and getting me some great appearances. I needed to be with the fans. It was, and is, great therapy.

If someone throws rocks at you, someone else will stand up for you. My fans stood by me, thinking—whatever the reason—that I was going through some bad times and the company acted hastily in burying me on TV. They came out in droves to see me and tell me that they were so excited to hear I was back. I looked every single person in the eye and shook everyone’s hand. As far as they were concerned, I got screwed somehow by Vince. Did I? No, as this could have been resolved in a much more sensible way.