“Stone Cold” Steve Austin made a thrilling return to wrestling after 19 years, fighting Kevin Owens at WrestleMania and ultimately defeating him.
The Texas Rattlesnake got off to a pretty slow start and all of his 57 years showed, as did his rust. But he grew into the match and seemed to get better after every beer he chugged. The WWE Hall of Famer ended the match with his iconic Stunner and would hit K.O with another after the victory.
It was an incredible Saturday night for Austin fans and the Dallas home crowd, who must have expected to see him put up his middle fingers at least a few times.
According to Pat McAfee, Stone Cold was warned against flipping the bird at the show, having done so during rehearsals.
Speaking on his Pat McAfee Show (transcription from Ringside News), the WWE announcer said:
“He was working on coming out. And you know, we’re in a different era now of the WWE than we were then. So I got to watch this dude’s entrance within an empty stadium or whatever. He goes right to that top rope, f**king both fingers straight up in the air. He’s doing his whole thing.
"And then I see three producers running over (to him) ‘Can’t do that. Can’t do that’. So he does it again. ‘Can’t do that.’ He was like, ‘Alright.’ So he just put his fist up or whatever. So then as I was watching him [at the show], I was wondering, ‘There’s no way he keeps that middle finger down, the middle finger from Steve Austin is coming at some point.’ And then last night, he had a couple.”
Not Quite The Excellence Of Execution
Austin also featured on WrestleMania’s Night 2, hitting McAfee, Austin Theory, and Vince McMahon with Stunners. The one on the WWE boss, though, didn’t come off as planned.
You could check out the backstage reaction to the botch here.