Jim Ross On The Rock & Steve Austin’s Sitdown Interview Before WrestleMania 17, Why Debra Was Removed From Storyline

In a recent edition of Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed Debra being removed from The Rock and Steve Austin’s WrestleMania 17 storyline, his sitdown interview with Rock and Austin, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Jim Ross on Steve Austin and The Rock being uncomfortable with Debra being involved in their WrestleMania 17 storyline: “I think Rock and Austin were both uncomfortable with it. It just seemed like, ‘Why are we doing this?’ Debra always made the picture better because of her beauty, and she was a gorgeous Alabamian. But her services in that role were not needed. I think Rock and Austin just wanted to keep it serious and transact their business because neither of them was overly sure of how this thing was going to be received…….the Debra thing was, it may have just been a deal where Vince may have wanted to get her on the show. I don’t know. But it just was ill-timed and not knocking anything about Debra, but if it had been a valet who had a lot of wrestling experience, that was a bump-taker like Lita or Trish, that type of thing, then I get it. But the two guys were not for it, and all they had to do is, Rock had to raise his eyebrows, and Austin had to look down at his shoes, and Vince knew, well, we ain’t doing that.”

On his memorable sitdown interview with Austin and Rock before WrestleMania 17: “The competition was to see who was the best in the business. I think that’s what both of them were striving to achieve. We did that interview, and obviously, we knew what we were gonna talk about. The subject matter and the direction we were gonna take this interview in was well-established. We had no rehearsal, we had no script. I take a lot of pride in that. It was somewhat like my interview with Mick Foley back in the day. There was no script, and there were no writers. I think we did it in the locker room, and I wanna say we did it in one take. Austin stole the interview because what he said was accurate. He believed everything he was saying in his own context. We sat down to do the interview, it was all natural, and it was two great talents talking and making their points. It was really, really good. If you go back and watch that, look at Austin’s eyes. They’re phenomenal. And look at Rock’s expressions in how he sold what Austin was saying with his facial expressions. It foreshadowed how great he was gonna become on the big screen. He knew what he was doing. I was very happy to be involved in it. It was pretty sensational.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Grilling JR with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.