Stone Cold Does Not Miss Wrestling
The Texas Rattlesnake tells us that he’s gotten it out of his blood.
March 14, 2011
Source: tv.ign.com

Last week, IGN had the pleasure of visiting the set of the USA’s new WWE wrestling reality competition series, Tough Enough. While there, we had a chance to speak with the show’s iconic trainers “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Booker T, Trish Stratus and Bill DeMott. The question was posed to Austin: “Do you miss being in the ring?” Did being on this show, around a batch of new passionate contestants make Stone Cold pine for the days in being in mega-matches?

“No, I really don’t,” Austin said flat out. “Man, I am where I’m at right now, and I’m so happy with where I’m at. I actually got in with one of the kids the other day and I was bouncing around, and I worked with him a little bit, took a few bumps. I love being in this thing [the ring], but I’m at a point now where I’ve gotten it out of my blood. I’m close enough — I’m as close as I want to be and can get to it right now by being the host and watching Bill and Booker and Trish put them through their paces.”

Austin continued, “I’ve got access to this ring 24/7, and I can get in there and bounce around and do whatever I want. The days of lighting up 20,000 people every single night of the week, no matter what day it was, and 90,000 on a big show like WrestleMania, that was a blast, but those days are over, and I’ve had some great times in this ring. And when I think back, I’ve got a lot of great memories, and this is about as close as I want to be. And you know, that being said, you know, going back to the RAWs that I get a chance to go back to, I was just on Monday Night RAW the other night. I didn’t get a chance to do exactly everything that I wanted to do because I wanted to give the fans so much more, and they expected more.”

So Austin would have liked to have done more on the last RAW, but he was still happy to get out there and make an appearance for his fans. “We’re on the ‘Road to WrestleMania.’ It was what it was,” Austin admitted. “But that being said, that was the number one rated segment of that show, and it was the highest rated for all that they’ve had in quite some time, so I love my WWE fans, and I love my fans worldwide. I’m just really happy that we had the success we did in just giving that appearance.”

Make sure to check back later in the week for our full interview with Austin about the being a trainer on the new WWE Tough Enough.

Tough Enough will premiere Monday, April 4 at 11/10c, the day after WrestleMania XXVII and immediately following RAW. It moves to its regularly scheduled slot in primetime, Mondays at 8/7c, starting on April 11.

View more screen captures in the photo gallery!

Source: TWNPNews.com

Yesterday was media day at the WWE Tough Enough house with newspapers, magazines and other media outlets present. IGN’s Matt Fowler noted on Twitter that yoga was being used in the Tough Enough warm up sessions, something that’s probably came from Trish Stratus.

Here’s what we know about the cast of Tough Enough so far. WWE’s original press release announcing Tough Enough’s return stated that there would be 12 competitors on the show but new commercials on the USA Network say that there will be 14. Here are 7 of those:

7 Contestants

Matt Cross
Known on the independents as M-Dogg 20 and has worked for years on the independents for Ring of Honor and others. Debuted in 2001 and worked a tag team match against Vance Archer and Curt Hawkins on a 2010 episode of WWE Superstars.

Christina Crawford
Former FCW Diva and sister to RAW Diva Alicia Fox.

Bobby Robinson
Known on the Maine independent scene as Golden Boy. Word is that he can be seen in the Tough Enough commercial saying he will do whatever it takes to get the contract.

Rima Fakih
Current Miss USA and WWE fan who has hosted RAW.

Erik Watts
A California independent wrestler with the nickname Big Nasty.

Juliet The Huntress
22 year old independent wrestler of Puerto Rican descent based out of Chicago, debuted in 2005. Read more about her here.

Ryan Howe
Known as “The Rock ‘n Rebel” Diamond Steel. Apparently he is the blonde in the Tough Enough commercial where Steve Austin says he doesn’t like his hair.

Thanks to Josh for the screen captures!!!

The photo gallery link is here.

Source: NerdReactor.com

With Wrestlemania just around the corner, there is a BIG rumor that The Texas Rattle Snake and The People’s Champ may co-host Saturday Night Live right before Pay-Per-View. NBC will not confirm their host for the April 2nd edition of SNL, only that Elton John will be the musical guest.

I think this could make for a really great TV. Stone Cold and The Rock are by far some of the greatest wrestlers to ever work the mic. Their feud is considered to be possibly the greatest of all time and the highpoint of professional wrestling. I still get chills when I go back and watch some of their old promos.

Nothing at this time has been confirmed…

Tough Enough Promo

Cole Reveals WM Special Referee

Part 1

Part 2

Source: WWE.com

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin signed contract to be special guest referee in Michael Cole vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler WrestleMania match.

Last week, Michael Cole announced that his trainer for his WrestleMania match against Jerry “The King” Lawler will be Jack Swagger. This week, the other boot dropped. Cole revealed his choice as special guest referee: JBL! Only one problem.

Before The Lonestar Loudmouth could sign the contract, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin confronted the two. After stunning JBL, The Texas Rattlesnake signed on the dotted line to become the match’s special guest referee and chased off Cole.

Screen captures will be coming soon!

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Source: CamelClutchBlog.com

Put the rumors to rest, it is official. Stone Cold Steve Austin will be the special guest referee for the Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole WrestleMania 27 match. Steve Austin returns to the familiar role of guest referee that he has played to acclaim at past WrestleMania events.

Michael Cole promised all throughout the first hour of RAW that he would announce his special guest referee for the match. Cole finally made the announcement and teased Austin saying that the ref is a Texan and a former WWE champion. Instead he swerved the audience with JBL. The longest reigning WWE champion on SmackDown made his way to the ring and celebrated with Cole. Cole handed JBL the contract and all of the sudden glass broke and all hell broke loose.

Steve Austin made his way to the ring and the place went nuts for the long awaited Beer Drinking Rematch with JBL from 2006. Austin acknowledged the crowd and then nailed JBL with a Stone Cold Stunner. JBL dropped the contract out of his hand and hit the mat, Cole left the ring for the broadcast table, and Austin celebrated by drinking several beers. Austin then noticed the contract on the ground, asked the crowd to give him a “Hell Yeah!” if they wanted him to sign the contract, he did, and is now the official guest referee for Lawler vs. Cole.

It was a real clever way to get Austin involved in the match and on WrestleMania 27. News broke last week that Austin would be the referee for the match but it didn’t make any sense at the time. With Cole allowed to pick the referee, the idea that he would pick Austin didn’t make sense. I’ll give the WWE a ton of credit tonight because they made it work. The JBL swerve was great and in the end it all makes sense.

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In a nostalgic moment, last week’s video from The Rock played following the Austin angle. It has probably been eight years or so since a WWE fan could tune into RAW and see Austin and Rock back to back on the same show.

This marks Austin’s first official return to WrestleMania since he donned the stripes at WrestleMania 23 to referee the Donald Trump vs. Vince McMahon challenge between Bobby Lashley and Umaga. Austin then appeared briefly at WrestleMania 25 but only to come out live and be acknowledged for his WWE Hall of Fame induction. Austin returned to RAW last year as part of the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon build up but was never part of WrestleMania 26.

WrestleMania 27 marks the first WrestleMania that The Rock and Austin have appeared together on since WrestleMania XX when Austin was ironically enough a special guest referee for the Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg match and The Rock tagged with Mick Foley to wrestle Evolution. I would be shocked if the two didn’t do some kind of backstage vignette to tease a confrontation at WrestleMania 27, especially with an upcoming DVD in the works on their feud.

RAW ratings have been dramatically up since the return of The Rock. I would imagine they would continue or even grow tonight with Austin back in the fold. There is talk of The Rock appearing on one more RAW before WrestleMania either next week or the following Monday. Just the idea that fans think they may see both Rock and Austin on RAW over the next two weeks should result in the highest RAW ratings in years in upcoming weeks.

JRsBarBQ.com

On Steve Austin: The Dallas/WWE fans definitely came to see Stone Cold Steve Austin. Although Austin did not have that much to say nor did he overstay his welcome by any stretch, Austin stole the show Monday night and seemed to be having a great time interacting with the fans and even the cameramen. Austin’s fans long ago made a strong emotional bond with the Texas Rattlesnake that will seemingly last forever. @steveaustinBSR, on Twitter, can still command an audience as good as any WWE performer today or any previous generation.