WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin recently spoke with Sportskeeda about a wide range of pro-wrestling-related topics, which included the Rattlesnake revealing that Vince McMahon initially didn’t want him to do the middle finger salute as his trademark pose. Check out Austin’s full thoughts on the subject below.
Says Vince McMahon did not want him to use the middle finger salute during his prime run in WWE:
“It just turns out that the timing was right when I did it. And they asked me not to do it, but I said, ‘No, I’m gonna do it.’ They wanted me to come up with a whole different hand signal. Vince did, specifically, because Diamond Dallas Page was giving the diamond [hand signal], right? And everybody would go like that [hands raised] with it.”
Vince asked him to change it but Austin didn’t as WWE was on the rise:
“He goes, ‘Can you come up with a different signal that everybody else can do?’ I looked him dead in the eyes and said, ‘No.’ And I kept flying the middle fingers and we kept climbing up, we started whipping their [WCW’s] a** in the ratings, and we had a hell of a crew, and one thing led to another. It’s nice to see a picture of you and Buddy Rogers. He truly was one of the great ones.”