Kemo
02-16-2018, 09:11 PM
Billy Gunn joined Steve Austin on his podcast, where they discussed the differences between today’s WWE and the company that was operating in the 90s. The main highlights from the episode revolve around the negative aspect of WWE from twenty odd years ago, which Steve Austin described as stone age compared to today.
Stone Cold describes how he was treated after a career defining injury during his match with Owen Hart:
“Back in the day, when I got dropped on my head, the thing with Owen, God rest his soul, and so anyway, that jacked me up. I mean, it was heavy duty, but I was like, ‘I’ve got to finish this match,’ but nothing would work! So anyway, you know the deal, I rolled him up, called it in the ring, and got out.”
Austin continued and explains how he never got paid when he was injured, or required surgery.
“I didn’t [get paid] either, not on my surgery in 1999, 2000, whenever I got fused up. This was before they would start paying guys. Let’s just say it was like the stone ages compared to now. These days, everything’s all covered. Back in the day, dude, when I had my neck surgery, I was gone for about a year. Zero. I got a royalty check every quarter, but I mean nothing.”
Furthermore, Austin reveals that no one from the company attended him to the hospital after the match.
“There I go, I get x-rayed and there were no MRIs. Nothing’s broken. I bruised my spinal cord. I’ve got a bunch of stuff going on. I walk outside the hospital, [and] ain’t nobody from the company come with me. I’m sitting there, I’m all messed up, and three girls had followed the ambulance to the hospital. I walked out to no support there! ‘Steve, do you want a ride back to the hotel?’ ‘Yeah!’ I got in the car with them. They took me by the liquor store. I got my 12-pack of Budweiser. They took me back to the Holiday Inn right by the Newark [New Jersey] airport there. You stay there, dude. And I remember, I was effed up.” Steve continued, “dude, I was traumatized! I just sat there and drank that 12-pack of beer. I’ll never forget it. I thought a lot of things about my career, but I drank that dang 12-pack and I was thinking, ‘holy s–t! That was a rough ride!'”
The other interesting topic that the two legends discuss is the exposure and use of drugs. While Stone Cold explains that alcohol was “his thing”, Billy Gunn detailed his battles with pills.
“I’m a recovering addict, so I’ve been clean for seven years, but when you hurt, you don’t think about it too much and there are easier ways to do it. If I just take this, I don’t have to worry about going and getting a massage or going to a chiropractor or going to a doctor. I just mask it with this. So then you mask it so long and then it catches up with you. But now, nowadays, that’s not an option […] you doctor hunt, you have scripts all over the place, you buy them from people you don’t even know and hope to God that they work because it was really bad. I had left the company. It was just everything was going awry. Like, it was one thing and all going downhill. All addicts do, in my case because that’s all I talk about, is I’m just trying to cover things up. I don’t want to think about them, but when I come out of that, they’re still there, so you just keep covering and they never go away and then it’s worse and worse and worse till your consumption goes more and more and more. I couldn’t keep pills around for [anything], like going through 100 somas in three days. That’s insane.”
Stone Cold describes how he was treated after a career defining injury during his match with Owen Hart:
“Back in the day, when I got dropped on my head, the thing with Owen, God rest his soul, and so anyway, that jacked me up. I mean, it was heavy duty, but I was like, ‘I’ve got to finish this match,’ but nothing would work! So anyway, you know the deal, I rolled him up, called it in the ring, and got out.”
Austin continued and explains how he never got paid when he was injured, or required surgery.
“I didn’t [get paid] either, not on my surgery in 1999, 2000, whenever I got fused up. This was before they would start paying guys. Let’s just say it was like the stone ages compared to now. These days, everything’s all covered. Back in the day, dude, when I had my neck surgery, I was gone for about a year. Zero. I got a royalty check every quarter, but I mean nothing.”
Furthermore, Austin reveals that no one from the company attended him to the hospital after the match.
“There I go, I get x-rayed and there were no MRIs. Nothing’s broken. I bruised my spinal cord. I’ve got a bunch of stuff going on. I walk outside the hospital, [and] ain’t nobody from the company come with me. I’m sitting there, I’m all messed up, and three girls had followed the ambulance to the hospital. I walked out to no support there! ‘Steve, do you want a ride back to the hotel?’ ‘Yeah!’ I got in the car with them. They took me by the liquor store. I got my 12-pack of Budweiser. They took me back to the Holiday Inn right by the Newark [New Jersey] airport there. You stay there, dude. And I remember, I was effed up.” Steve continued, “dude, I was traumatized! I just sat there and drank that 12-pack of beer. I’ll never forget it. I thought a lot of things about my career, but I drank that dang 12-pack and I was thinking, ‘holy s–t! That was a rough ride!'”
The other interesting topic that the two legends discuss is the exposure and use of drugs. While Stone Cold explains that alcohol was “his thing”, Billy Gunn detailed his battles with pills.
“I’m a recovering addict, so I’ve been clean for seven years, but when you hurt, you don’t think about it too much and there are easier ways to do it. If I just take this, I don’t have to worry about going and getting a massage or going to a chiropractor or going to a doctor. I just mask it with this. So then you mask it so long and then it catches up with you. But now, nowadays, that’s not an option […] you doctor hunt, you have scripts all over the place, you buy them from people you don’t even know and hope to God that they work because it was really bad. I had left the company. It was just everything was going awry. Like, it was one thing and all going downhill. All addicts do, in my case because that’s all I talk about, is I’m just trying to cover things up. I don’t want to think about them, but when I come out of that, they’re still there, so you just keep covering and they never go away and then it’s worse and worse and worse till your consumption goes more and more and more. I couldn’t keep pills around for [anything], like going through 100 somas in three days. That’s insane.”