When Steve Austin was at his peak, from 1997 to 1999, Ken Shamrock was a member of the WWE active roster and was familiar with him at that time. Shamrock won the Intercontinental Title, the Tag Team Titles, and the 1998 King of the Ring during his time with WWE. Shamrock and Austin did wrestle each other, but they never had a significant pay-per-view singles contest.
During an interview with Wrestling Shoot Interviews, Shamrock spoke about getting to face Austin on Raw in October 1998:
“I thought he [Steve Austin] felt real comfortable with me. I felt like he was already in a position at that point where his role was, he was the guy, period. And me going in there [RAW main event match against Austin in 1998], obviously he had a tremendous amount of respect for me. And I think in his own mind it was like, it was an honor for him to wrestle me in this stage because of who I was. It was a feather in his cap per se.”
“So, when we went in there and did that, we had a tremendous amount of respect for each other. And I had a tremendous amount of respect for him on what he was able to do in pro wrestling. So for me to be in there with him, I was like, ‘okay, this is awesome. This is great.’ But I think in reverse it was the same with him being in there with me being the original World’s Most Dangerous Man and legitimate World’s Most Dangerous Man being able to work with me.”