Matt Hardy gives his thoughts on Stone Cold Steve Austin’s heel run following his infamous turn at WrestleMania 17.
The Broken One discussed the Rattlesnake becoming a bad guy on the latest edition of his Extreme Life podcast. Hardy began by commending Austin for having the guts to try something new, adding that the multi-time world champion did feel confident in his decision to be a bad guy.
It was interesting. I mean Steve was really confident in himself and he thought he could make this thing work and I like that mentality, I like the approach of trying something different and new. You have to always change, you have to always evolve, right? Stone Cold became a character that was so beloved, it was very hard to get him booed and that was gonna be problematic all the way through that.
The current AEW star later compares Austin being a heel to his brother Jeff Hardy attempting to be a heel, stating that both men were too well loved for it to actually work.
I almost, to me, it feels very similar to Jeff Hardy. It would be hard to make Jeff Hardy a full fledged heel because he’s just such a beloved character and people connect with him in a way that very few people do. Stone Cold was that way too. I know he went out, and it was in Texas of all places where he is absolutely put on a pedestal, and he was getting cheered when he was beating The Rock’s ass after aligning with Mr. McMahon or whatever. They knew that was going to be problematic so they said ‘How can we get some legitimate heat on this guy?’ and he said ‘Well, let’s call in these young heartthrobs, the Hardy Boyz and Lita, Team Extreme.’ Let’s get some heat on those guys.
Austin would eventually return to being a top babyface for WWE. Meanwhile, Hardy is preparing for his upcoming Firm Deletion matchup against The Firm. You can check out his latest thoughts on that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)