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| Stone Cold Steve Austin |
Stone Cold Steve Austin.
If you’re a WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) fan, the name will surely bring a string of images to your mind. Like a 6’2” huge, muscular bodybuilder. Doing his now-famous move, the Stone Cold Stunner.
Then guzzling beer, slamming two cans together, and ending his act by pouring beer over his face. Initially termed the ‘Ringmaster’, Steve Austin then came to be known as ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’. This six-time WWE champion challenged most of the WWE greats, from Ric Flair to his sworn enemy Bret Hart to The Rock, and is the only man in WWE history to win the Royal Rumble Championship thrice!
Now semi-retired (not surprisingly due to neck, ankle and knee injuries), Stone Cold is presently concentrating on his acting career. He featured in The Longest Yard along with The Great Khali, The Rock and Goldberg, and has recently played the role of convict Jack Conrad in the action thriller The Condemned, DVDs of which will be released in India in English and Hindi.
Not to mention the television series and home videos he’s shot for as well. Being an out-and-out outdoors person, Steve had a “wonderful” time shooting for the film on outdoor locations in Australia. “I liked the story; it’s a heavy-duty, hardcore action flick. It was a role my WWE fans would expect of me, and would like to see me in,” says the self-confessed action movie fan. Over to where all the action is...
Wrestling is not a common profession. What inspired you to take up the sport professionally?
Through school and college, I was into sports, especially football and baseball, and I’ve been a fan of wrestling since I was eight. Not just matches on TV, I even used to catch the local matches live. Then one day during my college years, I saw this commercial on TV on a wrestling school. Instantly, I knew that this was what I wanted to be.
How did you acquire the name ‘Stone Cold’?
When I started out, I used to be called ‘The Ringmaster’. But I knew the name was never going to work for me. There I was, a cold-blooded, ruthless character, a complete anti-hero, without a suitable enough name. Then one day, my ex-wife happened to tell me to have my tea before it gets stone-cold and voila, that was it!
Was your cold-blooded, ruthless image a pre-planned idea?
Well I was trying to be a bad guy, and I was doing it in my own
distinctive style. And when people cheered me on, I continued to go in that direction. If you want to be a success in WWE, you’ve got to please the crowd. I was just being a smart businessman!
And the beer can-smashing act, how did that originate?
I just started doing it, it seemed like a good, different idea. Again, the crowds liked it. Everything I did, right from the beer act to the crude language to showing the middle finger, was work in progress. Ideas used to just hit me and I experimented with them. If they worked, I continued doing them.
Who was your most challenging opponent?
I wouldn’t say challenging, but there were a few favourites like Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and The Rock. Bret Hart and I shared great chemistry in the ring too. Outside the ring, The Great Khali and I are good buddies. Khali’s a very nice guy, we get along very well. While we were shooting for The Longest Yard, we used to work out together. I’ll never forget the time when Khali walked into the women’s loo in the gym by mistake! The girls were hysterical and Khali was so embarrassed!
The Great Khali is doing a Bollywood movie. Are you looking at Bollywood action flicks too?
Yeah, I’d love to act in a Bollywood movie.
If you’re a WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) fan, the name will surely bring a string of images to your mind. Like a 6’2” huge, muscular bodybuilder. Doing his now-famous move, the Stone Cold Stunner.
Then guzzling beer, slamming two cans together, and ending his act by pouring beer over his face. Initially termed the ‘Ringmaster’, Steve Austin then came to be known as ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’. This six-time WWE champion challenged most of the WWE greats, from Ric Flair to his sworn enemy Bret Hart to The Rock, and is the only man in WWE history to win the Royal Rumble Championship thrice!
Now semi-retired (not surprisingly due to neck, ankle and knee injuries), Stone Cold is presently concentrating on his acting career. He featured in The Longest Yard along with The Great Khali, The Rock and Goldberg, and has recently played the role of convict Jack Conrad in the action thriller The Condemned, DVDs of which will be released in India in English and Hindi.
Not to mention the television series and home videos he’s shot for as well. Being an out-and-out outdoors person, Steve had a “wonderful” time shooting for the film on outdoor locations in Australia. “I liked the story; it’s a heavy-duty, hardcore action flick. It was a role my WWE fans would expect of me, and would like to see me in,” says the self-confessed action movie fan. Over to where all the action is...
Wrestling is not a common profession. What inspired you to take up the sport professionally?
Through school and college, I was into sports, especially football and baseball, and I’ve been a fan of wrestling since I was eight. Not just matches on TV, I even used to catch the local matches live. Then one day during my college years, I saw this commercial on TV on a wrestling school. Instantly, I knew that this was what I wanted to be.
How did you acquire the name ‘Stone Cold’?
When I started out, I used to be called ‘The Ringmaster’. But I knew the name was never going to work for me. There I was, a cold-blooded, ruthless character, a complete anti-hero, without a suitable enough name. Then one day, my ex-wife happened to tell me to have my tea before it gets stone-cold and voila, that was it!
Was your cold-blooded, ruthless image a pre-planned idea?
Well I was trying to be a bad guy, and I was doing it in my own
distinctive style. And when people cheered me on, I continued to go in that direction. If you want to be a success in WWE, you’ve got to please the crowd. I was just being a smart businessman!
And the beer can-smashing act, how did that originate?
I just started doing it, it seemed like a good, different idea. Again, the crowds liked it. Everything I did, right from the beer act to the crude language to showing the middle finger, was work in progress. Ideas used to just hit me and I experimented with them. If they worked, I continued doing them.
Who was your most challenging opponent?
I wouldn’t say challenging, but there were a few favourites like Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and The Rock. Bret Hart and I shared great chemistry in the ring too. Outside the ring, The Great Khali and I are good buddies. Khali’s a very nice guy, we get along very well. While we were shooting for The Longest Yard, we used to work out together. I’ll never forget the time when Khali walked into the women’s loo in the gym by mistake! The girls were hysterical and Khali was so embarrassed!
The Great Khali is doing a Bollywood movie. Are you looking at Bollywood action flicks too?
Yeah, I’d love to act in a Bollywood movie.
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