WWE News: Despite Denials, WWE And ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin Still At Odds, WWE Legal Now Involved?
For the last few weeks, we’ve heard rumors of issues between WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and WWE. This came up due to Austin no showing for the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony that he never seems to miss along with WrestleMania 31. While Austin shot down the rumors and claimed there was just a scheduling issue, this does not seem likely.
Issues began when Austin was alleged to have declined doing WWE Tough Enough this upcoming season. In addition, after seeing how much success Austin had with his wrestling podcast, Mr. McMahon decided a monthly podcast would be perfect for the WWE Network. Austin had great conversations with Vince McMahon and Triple H on his own show, and he didn’t shy away from asking tough questions. Austin must have been fuming when WWE chose Chris Jericho to do their podcast instead of The Texas Rattlesnake.
However, it seems McMahon didn’t care for Austin’s interview style or his hard-charging, aggressive, take it to the limit attitude. Which is why Austin isn’t doing the monthly podcast and Jericho is. This may be one source of the trouble, among other gripes, grudges and complaints.
PWInsider confirms that despite denials from all sides, there is still heavy tension between WWE and Austin. Anyone who is familiar with Steve Austin probably realizes how pissed off Stone Cold probably was after WWE legal sent a cease and desist letter to the online wrestling t-shirt shop, ProWrestlingTees.com, regarding their sale of Austin merchandise.
ProWrestlingTees is a website where wrestlers sell their merchandise because they get a far better share of the money than with Vince’s company. WWE legends might have their stuff in the WWE’s Shop, but they get a smaller percentage. So ProWrestlingTees offers wrestlers a better return, which is why Austin had his merchandise there.
Due to the letter from WWE legal, a lot of Austin’s merchandise disappeared from the ProWrestlingTees website.
A fan tweeted at Austin to ask why there were no 316 gimmick street shirts available on the website, and Stone Cold responded to the fan on Twitter in a typically confident manner.
“@MilyVanilly@ProWrestlingTs They will be back. Stay tuned.”
Wrestling fans wonder why WWE would suddenly go after the shop when Austin had his merchandise there for some time. Stone Cold now has another issue to add to his stack of problems with WWE. The Texas Rattlesnake is planning to bring his merchandise back to ProWrestlingTees, but no one knows how far Vince intends to go in order to prove Mr, McMahon is the Alpha male in the WWE pack.
It was noted recently that Austin was not thrilled with John Cena using the stunner, a move Austin made famous. Austin and his guests on his Stone Cold Podcast reference gimmick infringement often. Keep in mind, the stunner was used by Cena around WrestleMania, which was when the rumors about the conflict between Austin and WWE started. Could one of the issues have been Vince telling Austin that Cena was going to use the move, and Austin gave Vince a “Hell No” instead of a “Hell Yeah?”
While both sides may not go public with their issues, it seems that Austin let a bit of frustration out on his recent podcast. So, will we see or hear more from him? Who knows? It is probably better for both sides to remain silent on the problems between them. However, that does not mean WWE and Austin are now beer buddies, and all is well between two of the biggest egos in pro wrestling. Every bit of evidence points to the contrary, and until Vince and Stone Cold work out their problems, the rumors will continue to fly.
[IMG Credit: technologytell.com, businesstocommunity.com]
