Grilling JR - Steve Austin Walks Out [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Steve Austin Walks Out 

Alright, we’re going to spend an entire episode on Stone Cold Steve Austin. But the truth is that Steve Austin is way too big of a topic for just one episode so we put his 2002 Walk Out on the poll and it was the clear winner and that’s what we’re going to focus on. 

And why the Walk Out? Because his last match on Raw was June 3, 2002 was 15 years ago so we’re celebrating an anniversary of sorts here. 

There’s been a lot said about this because it was a big deal at the time and Austin, in 20015 in Sports Illustrated referred to it as, “My biggest regret” but we’re going to go behind the scenes and really 1 figure out what was happening, what it meant, how it was managed and then, in the end, how it all got worked out. 

Really quickly here up front, to understand the magnitude of this in June 2002 we have to go back and just remember who Stone Cold Steve Austin was. 

Okay, Austin showed up in the WWF in 1995 as the Ringmaster and then Austin 3:16 is born at the 1996 King of the Ring. He keeps getting bigger and has his famous match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 that made him a huge star. And we covered that King of the Ring and WrestleMania 13 in The Archives. 

Then, Steve Austin experienced what could have been a career ending and life altering injury in a match against Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997. We visited this a bit in the Owen Hart episode that is in The Archives. 

The Monday Night Wars with WCW are hot and there’s a good argument that the WWF is losing them, especially in the ratings. But the feud between Austin and McMahon that started in 1998 becomes one of the greatest story lines in the history of professional wrestling and is widely credited with leading the WWF past WCW. 

In 1999 and 2000, with Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon front and center, the ratings on Raw were astronomical. Having a week with above a 5.0 rating was normal. 

So Austin is still huge in 2001. He won his third Royal Rumble. Then he faced The Rock in the main event at WrestleMania X-Seven. Here he is about one year before he would walk out of the company and he’s still on top of the wrestling world. 

Austin’s Injuries 

On to King of the Ring 2001. Steve Austin defeated Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit at 27:50 by pinning Benoit when Benoit seemingly knocked himself out after dropping Jericho with a back suplex off the top; late in the bout, as part of the Invasion angle, WCW World Champion Booker T came out of the crowd to attack Austin on the floor before putting him through the Spanish announce table and leaving back through the crowd when security came down to grab him. 

In his book Austin casually states, “I’d been off work [in Summer of 2001] because I got three broken vertebrae in my back when Booker T clocked me on the announcers’ table over at Continental Airlines during his debut.” 

I want to focus here for two reasons: 

1. I think understanding Austin’s injuries are really important for how Steve is doing in early 2002. 2. Booker T told this story and it caught my attention. 

Talking about the incident, Booker T said, “"My first night coming in [to WWE], I had to do some stuff with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. I'm supposed to dump him on the table. When guys in the ring are working, they're supposed to spill outside [the ring], take the table, take all the stuff off of it, take the TVs out and whatnot. Then, I was supposed to go out, get my cue, jump over, and nail 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Boom! Drop him on the table. Big debut match. That's the way it was supposed to have went. They give me my cue, 'go!'. Now, I go and all the stuff is still on the table, the television, the monitors, the top of it, everything, but I couldn't go take that stuff off. I had a spot to do. I go pick Steve up, dropped him on the table, he bounces off of it, and lands on the floor. My big night's over with and I'm on my way to the next town." 

Booker T continued, "Bruce Prichard calls me [and says], 'Book, you've got to do something. I don't know. Steve broke his hand. You broke his hand.' [Booker T said,] 'well, give me his phone number. I'll give him a call! I'll apologize to him.' [Prichard replied,] 'I can't give you his phone number. I'll tell you what. He's at this hotel. If you just probably met him at the hotel in the morning, and just packed his bags on the way to the ring for him...' [Booker T interjected,] 'whoa, hold the hell up. I ain't packing no bags!' True story! I see Steve later on. [Booker T said,] 'Steve, sorry about your hand.' [Austin replied,] 'oh, no problem, Book.'" 

Now, just for full context, let’s rewind the clock a bit. We discussed it on the Owen Hart episode, that’s available in The Archives, but in Summer of 1997 Austin took a brutal botched piledriver from Owen. You can find it on the WWE Network, but it’s hard to watch. It’s immediately obvious that something is very wrong when Austin and Owen got him out of the match. But it’s bad. 

So now, compound all of this, and let’s bring it back to late 2001. It sounds like business is pretty good. In a press release that Summer the WWF announced revenue for the year at $456 million, up 20% from the previous year, but at the time ratings are hurting a bit and y’all are making a bet on the Invasion 

angle and according to Meltzer Vince was cutting expenses. 

NWO 2002 Invasion 

It’s 2002 and in the January 21 st issue of the Observer Meltzer writes about Vince signing Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, the NWO. 

He wrote, “"[Vince] has decided to bring Hogan, Hall and Nash, three of the most influential people in the death of World Championship Wrestling, back to the WWF, possibly to reform the NWO. I can’t tell you for certain whether they’ve put pen to paper and signed contracts yet, but Vince did pull aside the road agents Sunday afternoon to inform them of his decision. It really came as a slap in the face to the people who Vince had lied to repeatedly, telling them he wasn’t going to sign them no matter what, while at the same time privately negotiating with them." 

Along those lines, in an interview talking about the NWO Invasion, Kevin Nash said, “Why would people be excited about the NWO coming in? It's not like they were coming in mid-card.” So, Nash seems to understand part of the controversy here. 

Austin has addressed it in several places that the plan was brought to him to get a match between him and Hogan but he wasn’t keen on the idea. In an interview he said, “[Hogan] was open to having a 

match, me not so much. I thought the styles would clash. I didn’t think it would be that great of a match." 

Okay, we go to the Royal Rumble, Austin is in the Final Four with HHH, Mr. Perfect and Kurt Angle, so that’s pretty high feature spot and Triple H won by last eliminating Kurt Angle. 

Right around that in late January, on the Ross Report, JR reports that Austin is going to be heading to San Antonio to have his neck examined by Dr. Lloyd Youngblood. 

Now we’re in WrestleMania season with the 2002 Royal Rumble behind us on Austin is in the main event at No Way Out with Chris Jericho for the Undisputed WWF Championship. Jericho wins and Hogan, Hall and Nash destroy Austin after the match and Hall gives Austin the Stunner and they spray paint “NWO” on his back. So this is 100% old school NWO and it lays a clear path for Austin and Hall at WrestleMania. 

But Meltzer had a good nugget here in February 25 issue of the Observer. “Austin, Angle and Bradshaw were the three most vocal guys in the locker room last week about not wanting the NWO to come in. Austin’s big thing is that he and the other guys have worked way too hard bringing the in-ring work up to the level it’s at now to throw it all away having shitty matches with these three stiffs.... Austin was approached last week and told to think of ideas for a program with Hall, and he initially nixed it, saying everyone knew Hall wasn’t going to last until WrestleMania so it was pointless to build anything up with him. Obviously, he changed his mind, since he took the Stunner from Hall at the PPV." 

Now at WrestleMania, there’s been a fair amount said about this match between Scott Hall and Steve Austin. 

In an interview, Kevin Nash said the original plan was for WrestleMania to be a big night for the NWO. 

1. Hall was going to beat Austin 2. Hogan would lose to Rock but then NWO would come down destroy Rock and that would be last 

thing everyone would see is the NWO standing over Rock. 

But then Hogan doesn’t work as a heel against The Rock in the main event. 

Then, obviously y’all were working towards the brand the split immediately following WrestleMania, so Meltzer reported in the March 25 issue of The Observer, “The belief is that Austin seriously changed the planned booking strategy for his match with Scott Hall, perhaps even changing the finish of the match. The idea was to have Vince McMahon interfere in some way, perhaps causing Austin to lose and also necessitating the Board of Director’s decision to split the company in two (an announcement made on Raw the following evening). Austin, apparently not wanting to continue his feud with Hall in any way, refused to go along with the plans and scripted an entirely new match, which saw him pin Hall clean after two Stunners and end the feud. As a result, Vince didn’t even make a single appearance on the show, which made Linda’s announcement on Raw seem confusing and devoid of reason." 

Then in the April 1 issue of The Observer Meltzer had done some digging and said this, “The Tuesday before WrestleMania, the writing crew went to Vince and unanimously requested he change the finish of Austin vs. Scott Hall at WrestleMania. The original plan was for Hall to win thanks to outside interference from Kevin Nash and the debuting X-Pac. However, after watching Hall’s performance in the handicap match on the March 11th Raw, the crew decided that it would be an absolute disgrace for Hall to win at the company’s biggest show of the year. Plus, there is a belief that Hall won’t be around much longer (most people didn’t think he’d make it to WrestleMania), so it was felt that it would also be a mistake to put him over Austin on such a huge stage when there was no guarantee he’d be in the company a month from now. Vince agreed to change the finish. 

Meltzer continues, “Here’s where it gets weird. Nobody, not Vince or anybody on the writing crew, told anyone else about this decision. Even Austin was not informed that the finish had been changed. On Saturday night, Hall allegedly went out drinking with a bunch of fans from England and showed up hungover at WrestleMania. Austin blew his stack, since Vince had told everyone that if Hall screwed up one more time, he was done for. We got one report from someone who hung out with Hall all day Sunday saying he appeared to be OK, but others disagreed with that assessment. Austin went to Vince and told him that Hall was totally unprofessional for showing up at WrestleMania in less than perfect condition, and he wanted the finish of their match changed. Vince, having already decided to change it days earlier, “acquiesced” to Austin’s demand. Hall, Nash and X-Pac, also unaware that the finish had already been changed, got pissed off and blamed Austin. Their gripe was that the NWO would be killed dead by having to do two jobs at WrestleMania (at least someone learned something from the Invasion). The writing crew, not wanting to take any heat from Nash, just kept quiet and let Austin take the heat." 

Austin said this about the match in his book, “At WrestleMania X8, I was in the third or fourth match—it wasn’t even the main event. It was just some match on the card, the way I looked at it. And I wasn’t happy with that at all. You can tell me this business goes in cycles, and sometimes you’re not as hot as you want to be, but where I was on that card didn’t make sense to me. The match wasn’t promoted properly, it wasn’t built properly, nothing.” 

Then, this is pretty illuminating to get an idea of where Austin is at this point, he wrote in his book, “After ’Mania, I was fried. I was burned-out and frustrated. Debra and I did not even attend the traditional post-WrestleMania party.” 

Post-WrestleMania Walk Out 

Now the next night is the Raw after WrestleMania and this is always one of the biggest nights and Austin... flew home. He didn’t appear on Raw or Smackdown. 

Also from the April 1 issue of the Observer, Meltzer lays out a plan for that episode of Raw between Hogan and Rock against Hall and Nash and then says, “Austin, left out in the cold with no program, was only scheduled to cut a promo. He decided to go home instead.” 

Meltzer wrote, “Efforts were made by Vince all week to get back into his good graces...” 

So, we’re going into the brand split and draft and Austin isn’t there. There’s a storyline that he has a clause in his contract so he can’t be drafted and as a free agent he can go where he wants. 

From March 18, the day after WrestleMania, to April 1 on Raw Austin is MIA. But he shows up on Raw, and signs a contract to become exclusive to the Raw brand. Then he hits the Stunner on both Vince McMahon and Ric Flair. This whole thing is pretty big deal because we can see it in the ratings numbers, “The first hour did a 4.45, the second hour did a 5.19 and the overrun segment with the signing of Steve Austin did an enormous 5.72. Overall, the show averaged 6.6 million viewers.” 

Austin is back and everyone is down to business. 

On April 21 at Backlash in Kansas City, MO in front of 12,489 Austin loses to the Undertaker in a number-one contender match for the Undisputed Title. On the same card Hulk Hogan defeated Triple H for the Undisputed WWF Championship. We talked about this a bit on our Judgement Day 2002 episode in The Archives. 

Also of note, Eddie Guerrero pinned IC champion Rob Van Dam to win the IC title. 

Eddie had just comeback April 1, the Raw that Austin signed as a free agent to the Raw brand. 

Okay, then Judgement Day 2002 on May 19 th in Nashville, TN in front of 14,000. Again, this has been covered in depth, Meltzer wrote, “Austin beat Big Show & Ric Flair in a handicap match.... Well, that program is dead now. Better than you'd expect thanks to Flair and Austin. **3/4” 

The next night on Raw there’s a scene with Austin and Debra in a bar and someone buys a beer for Debra. This upsets Austin and turns around its Eddie. 

At this point things are moving pretty fast. Austin is starting a feud with Eddie but Flair and Austin are still involved. Chris Benoit is becoming a part of the angle. 

But apparently everything isn’t good with Austin. The famous Byte This interview goes down, I believe on May 31 st, about two weeks after Judgement Day. Here’s some highlights: 

• “Bottom line is everything sucks. I’m not happy with the direction going for Stone Cold Steve Austin. I think it’s piss poor.” 
• “The writing sucks,” Austin continued. “It can be a hell of a lot more creative.” 
• He addressed the “Internet rumors” of him being unhappy, saying they were true, and that the problems had been brewing since before WrestleMania. 
• Regarding the roster split, he said it was a horrible idea. 
• He said the bottom line was that the “brand extension” sucked so far, and the only good thing was that it allowed him more time to spend with Debra. 
• Regarding Brock Lesnar, he said the kid was a “blue chipper”, but that the Next Big Thing gimmick was “pretty damn lame.” 

But Austin is still making dates: 

• June 2nd from New Orleans Steve Austin pinned Eddie Guerrero after hitting a Stunner on both Guerrero and an interfering Ric Flair 
• June 3rd from Dallas for Raw Steve Austin pinned Ric Flair in an 'old time wrestling match' with the Stunner at 14:31; prematch stipulations stated that Austin could not punch Flair, the loser would become the servant of the winner, and that if Austin won he would come off the bench and if he lost he would be indefinitely suspended; both Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero interfered mid-way through the bout. o So everyone is still engaged in this angle: Eddie, Flair and Benoit. 
• June 7th from Lexington, KY  Steve Austin defeated Eddie Guerrero 
• June 8th from Knoxville, TN Steve Austin defeated Ric Flair in a steel cage match 
• June 9th from Columbus, GA Steve Austin defeated Ric Flair in a steel cage match after hitting the Stunner on both Flair and an interfering Arn Anderson  This was Austin’s last match. 

The next night was Raw from Atlanta, GA in front of 8,000 and this is where it all goes down. 

Austin Takes His Ball and Goes Home 

Let’s go to Austin’s book here, Stone Cold Truth. 

“We were about to do a show in Columbus, Georgia, and we were going to drive up I-85 to Atlanta for Raw the next night. Debra, with whom I’d had a big, damn argument, was already in Atlanta, waiting on me.” 

Back to Austin’s account in the book... 

“J.R. gave me a phone call. We talked about what Creative wanted for Monday night. They wanted Brock Lesnar to slip over me real quick (an out-of-nowhere win) in an unadvertised match with no buildup or promotion or meaning, in a tournament-style deal. There would be a screw job and he’d catch me for a three-count. I thought that was complete crap. I told J.R., “They’re going to have to change that. I ain’t doing it.” J.R. said, “Well, that’s what Vince wants to do.” I said, “If they don’t change it, I ain’t gonna fucking be there.” To me this wasn’t business. 

"I worked the house show that night, wrestling Ric Flair in a cage. In the meantime, Vince called me back and left a message on my hotel voicemail, saying, “Steve, this is Vince. Give me a call no matter what time it is. Give me a call so we can talk about that Creative for tomorrow’s show.” 

I checked out in Columbus and drove to Atlanta and made a point of not calling Vince back until I got all checked in at my hotel room in Atlanta. My cell phone rang a few times in the car, but I didn’t answer it. When I got to Atlanta and got checked into my hotel room, I called Vince. It was around two in the morning. “Hey, Vince,” I said, “It’s Steve. I’m just calling you back.” He ran the same scenario by me. Brock goes over me with no buildup in a surprise situation in a tournament-type match. He laid all that shit by me and I sat there and listened, and said, “Okay.” Vince was thinking I was saying okay because I agreed to do it. But I was saying, “Okay, I’m fucking fed up. Okay, this is bullshit.” 

Now, Austin explains in his book and has explained thousands of times since, so I’d guess our listeners are pretty familiar with, but it wasn’t losing to a young Brock that was the issue, it was more how it was done. 

He says, “Now they wanted me to do a job for Brock with zero buildup. I started seeing the writing on the wall. That was when I decided to walk, right or wrong. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was Brock. It could have been any of a dozen other guys. I love Brock to death. He’s a great kid and he’s going to be a big Superstar in this business. 

“I’ve drawn more money than anybody in the business. I’ve reportedly sold more merchandise than anybody in the business, and I’ve sold more Pay-Per-Views than anybody in the business, so Stone Cold is not the first in line to do a job to Brock Lesnar. 

Back to Austin’s side from his book, “I had already told J.R. I wasn’t going to be there in Atlanta, and I wasn’t going to argue with Vince on the phone. And I wasn’t going to show up the next day and try to hammer it out at TV. They had screwed with me to the Nth degree. 

"As soon as I hung up the phone with Vince, I looked at Debra and I said, “We’re going home tomorrow.” She said, “No, no, no.” I told her what they wanted me to do.” 

Now, this has been the part of the story everyone focuses on, the creative and especially the match with Lesnar. Even when Austin discusses it on his podcast, there’s a lot of focus managing the creative. 

But then he says this clearly in his book, “This stuff—what I thought were stupid creative decisions—set me off. It was the fuse that lit the dynamite. But the fact was that I had a lot of other problems going on at the same time. 

“My health had been failing for the last six to eight months. My serious neck and back problems were getting worse, and so was the problem I had with the reflexes in my legs. Of course, I wouldn’t admit that any of it was happening. I kayfabed it—I didn’t say anything about it. But these were ongoing problems, and I could tell my body had had enough. I couldn’t perform the way I wanted to. I was frustrated and I was scared. In my mind, I was feeling like less of a man than what I wanted to be—less of a man than I had been. 

“And while I was going through all the frustrations of my health issues, I was also dealing with the problem of my marriage to Debra and the problem of my kids moving to England. I was completely stressed out with so many things going on. The BS just kept piling up on me. Finally, I’d had enough. As far as I was concerned, it was a done deal—I was gone.” 

And then he says this, and it makes it feel like might have understood what all of this meant at the time, “On June 10, 2002, I walked out on the greatest job I’ve ever had.... But the bottom line was, I was just overwhelmed, mostly by my health problems. You don’t know how it feels to have those kinds of problems unless you’re actually physically going through it. They just weigh you down. They change your whole outlook.” 

But if he’s hiding all of this, no one can know, so the WWF stays in business mode. 

Now WWF, and the June 10 th episode Raw specifically, are left high and dry. 

Meltzer wrote, “One of Austin’s complaints was that it was ridiculous to hotshot his match with Lesnar on a free TV show with no build whatsoever, which is a valid point. However, most people were extremely disappointed that he decided to just walk out instead of discussing the situation with Vince, who didn’t find out Austin had left until he arrived at the building that afternoon. 

“As a result, most of the show had to be rewritten. With Austin gone, the decision was made that Flair, at 53, would have to carry the ball as top babyface for the time being. The decision to do the match for one hundred percent ownership was made Monday afternoon, and it was hotshot desperation on Vince’s part if nothing else.” 

One of the ways the company responded was through the show WWF Confidential. According to Meltzer this was taped on a Thursday and would air on Saturday, I believe June 15 th. 

• As the host of WWF Confidential Gene Okerlund gave a quick overview of the situation, saying Austin went on Byte This and vented his frustration last week, then just walked out of Raw this past Monday night." 
• In the interview, Vince said he was pissed and that Austin had walked out before and it was an unpardonable sin to just walk off the job like that. 
• Ross was very critical as well. 

Meltzer summarized, “In the piece, McMahon made it very clear that Austin was not welcome back, saying it would be ridiculous to build storylines around a person who had the tendency to just walk out unannounced, like he’d done twice previously. Vince said he made it a point to “never say never” in this business, but with that said, he didn’t know how he could ever work with Austin again. Ross was clearly devastated by what happened, having been long-time close friends with Austin, but said what happened at Raw was completely unacceptable." 

If you throw ‘wwe confidential stone cold’ into your Google machine it should come right up and you can watch the whole thing. 

In Austin’s book, J.R. wrote about the Confidential piece, but the public didn’t get to hear this until 2003 when the book came out. 

“I personally did not want to do the Confidential TV piece we did when Steve walked out, but I had a job to do. The first thing I said when I sat down and we started rolling tape was to express to whoever was listening that I did not want to do this interview. That did not make the air. All in all, our staff at TV did an excellent job with the feature, and we had to cover it because it was a huge story that affected the fans and our company. I said what I felt and I meant every word I said. I did not see it coming and I hoped that someday the true story of “why” would come out. That was not a good day at the office. I wiped tears from my face on my drive home. Those were some personally challenging times I hope I don’t have to experience ever again." 

So here it gets weird, weirder, and I really want to hear how this hit y’all. 

"On Saturday night, an hour before Confidential was set to air on the west coast, KMOL TV in San Antonio did a segment on their ten o’clock news broadcast detailing an alleged domestic dispute between Austin and his wife Debra earlier that morning. According to the report, Austin had assaulted her after an argument and then fled the house before police arrived." 

Pretty quickly this is getting some mainstream media attention with a lot of rumor and innuendo.  

So, now we go to Raw on June 17 from Oakland, California. 

Vince opens the show talking through the recent events surrounding Stone Cold Steve Austin. 

Vince said, “We have to move on tonight as a company without Austin.” Then he ends with Vince drinking a beer, saying “Thank you” and leaving the beer in the middle of the ring. 

We get through that and then the tease is being built around “the man” being on his way to the arena. 

The tease of “The Man” coming back turns out to be Rock. You can find this on the Network if you want. Rock gives a big pep talk to the fans and references the sacrifice of the guys in the locker room and how they bust their ass for the company. 

Then, in a not so subtle manner, if you don’t want to be in the company, “then just like the slogan says, you can get the f’ out!” 

In wrestling, for a variety of reasons, talent comes and goes, injuries, retirement, tragic deaths, but now there’s a spot at the top. 

In numerous interviews Austin refers to how Vince left him several voicemails but he wouldn’t return 

them. This is probably through July and August. 

Then, in the public story that folks know pretty well, from his book as Austin wrote it, “I got a card in the mail from J.R. He sent me a nice hand-written note that said, I’m here. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call me. J.R. That’s when I picked up the phone and called Jim Ross and we talked for two hours, because I know I went through two cell phones. We talked for two straight hours about what was going on and where my life was. Finally he said, “Is there any way you’d want to meet with Vince and talk about how things got all screwed up at the end? I know that’s not how you would have wanted to finish up.” I said, “Yeah, I’d love to talk to him and find out why everything happened like it did, and he can ask me the same thing.” J.R. said, “I’ll talk to him and see if I can set it up, and I’ll call you later.” So he set up the meeting." 

In the meantime we have SummerSlam. I’m sure we’ll discuss this in more depth in the future, but let’s look at it from the perspective of Stone Cold Steve Austin not being there. 

This gets us to the meeting with Vince. In the book he said it was in Houston when the WWE came through for Raw. So that probably makes it September 30. 

This gets us to the meeting with Vince. There in the hotel room, a penthouse at the Westin Hotel, and Austin says Vince opens up with, “What happened?” 

In the book he says, and this is fascinating, “And that’s when I opened up to him all my frustrations about what they wanted to do to my character and how it was bullshit. But I didn’t clue him into what I was going through with my health.” 

It sounds like the meeting ends with Steve talking about doing personal appearances but holding off out of respect for Vince. And then Vince reciprocates and says he help him promote the appearances. 

As we all know, Austin makes it back into the WWE ring in 2003. But let’s talk about how we got there. 

Now plans are being made. One of the fascinating things in this that I remembered was Austin and Vince talking about the fine on Austin’s podcast one night. They’re talking about things in the context of Punk leaving. If you want to find it on The Network, it starts around minute 23:00. 

In bringing Austin back, Vince says, “I think it’s only right that I should fine you. $650,000” 

But Austin counter offers for $250,000 and Vince accepts it. 

Austin’s coming back now. This must have been huge. 

In bringing Austin back, there had been a lot of emotion with it. 

So it’s February 10, 2003 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Raw and Austin makes his surprise return. 

Okay, to close this, this time period is a heck of a roller coaster and the best part is that it ends well.