Steve Austin has been making the media rounds in honor of it being ‘3:16 Day.’
During his appearance on Busted Open Radio on Monday, “The Texas Rattlesnake” spoke about his past comments about CTE, how he feels AJ Styles will wrestle again and how he thinks he could have thrived in the modern wrestling scene.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete audio archive of the discussion.
On his past comments about “not believing in CTE”: “Well, I remember they were doing a documentary one time and they were talking about CTE at the time, and this was, Jesus, 15, 20 years ago. I think we just had this conversation on the telephone a long time ago. 20 years ago, and I said that, ‘Hey man, I don’t think if you work in the business of pro wrestling, you shouldn’t have a whole lot of concussions and maybe you’re doing it wrong’ and I was speaking from a classical, Ric Flair-type style of wrestling that you shouldn’t be having a bunch of things and man, all of a sudden — I’m not really answering your question but, I just remember my Twitter timeline started blowing up and the people got mad as hell at me and they said, ‘Oh! You don’t believe in CTE?’ I was like, ‘God dang.’ I said, ‘No, I believe in CTE. Just not as it really kind of applies technically to pro wrestling.’ It’s gonna be a hot button that everybody starts sounding off so, I’ll get out of it but, that was just kind of being put on the spot about it and I answered accordingly so, sh*t, I don’t know… I’m not a scientist, I’m not a doctor… I took a lot of bumps and took some shots but, do I forget things every now and then? Yeah, well, I’m 61. I think that kind comes with the territory,” Austin laughed. “But, I’ve seen most of the guys that I know are pretty cool.”
On if he feels he could have thrived in the modern pro wrestling scene: “Well, I would have had to, and you know this, kind of when you see old footage of Jim Brown, the great running back. It looks like he wasn’t that fast, but he was and he was big and he was just running over everybody so it’d be like, hey, could Jim Brown thrive in today’s NFL? Yes, he could. He was that damn good so, yeah, of course I think I could navigate the waters because the talent is what it is and it’s a high level but, if you could make it in any era, I think you could make it in today’s era.”
On how he believes AJ Styles will eventually have another match: “I’m glad to hear you say that at 48 — whatever he is years old — that AJ Styles is young, because he is. In a sense, he’s post-prime and he’s gonna get older, but God dang, so many people don’t understand that you really don’t hit your peak years until — and like I said, he’s post-prime, but what a monster career he’s had. One of the best workers ever that I’ve seen, and I just love the guy. I don’t know him real well personally. We speak every now and then. But he’s had a phenomenal run. I’m glad he’s going into the Hall of Fame. He’ll have one more, he’ll get the itch. But I’m glad you said that, yeah, he’s still young… Not to go back on my retirement but I retired at 38. Sh*t man. That’s when you really put it all together, (mentally) and physically. You (are) post-prime but your mind, that’s when your mind is at its best because you’ve done so much and you’ve soaked in so much and you can apply it all…”
