Jon Moxley Discusses His Awkward Interview with Steve Austin on WWE Network

– During his interview with Wade Keller for the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast, Jon Moxley recalled his awkward appearance on Steve Austin’s WWE Network edition of the Stone Cold Podcast. Moxley appeared on the podcast as the last of the series that was filmed for the Network in August of 2016. The podcast was notably off, with Moxley seemingly not interested in giving answers and Austin becoming visibly frustrated with his guest’s lack of engagement.

Moxley told Keller that he had expressed being uncomfortable with some of the personal questions in prep with the producer and felt like he couldn’t say the things he really wanted to say about WWE because he was WWE Champion at the time. Highlights are below, as well as the full podcast:

On the prep for the show: “It’s an odd thing because I was really looking forward to it. I went in on my day off to do this. I was like, ‘Cool, we’re gonna like, talk wrestling.’ And I remember the producer guy, Adam Pennucci, I remember he called me like a week before to prep. And he’s trying to ask these super-personal, deep questions about like, my f**king childhood and s**t. And I was like, ‘You know, it’s kind of none of your business, man.’ Because I don’t wanna go on — If I’m gonna say some s**t about people who don’t have the same forum that aren’t there to defend themselves, you know. People from my family and stuff, like my family’s good. I don’t wanna drag up some s**t on national TV. That’s not fair to them, you know what I mean. So I go, ‘I’m not into that.'”

On the podcast going off the rails: “But within five seconds, I’m getting these f**king questions. I don’t know what they were. But he said something that like pissed me off, and I just f**king mentally shut down. And I f**king love Steve. It’s why, like if that had been a regular interview, it would have been like — I would have hung up on them. But it’s like, I f**king love Steve. I think basically he wanted me to say what I’m saying to you right now. Basically burying the s**t out of everything. But like, at the time — I believe I was WWE Champion at the time. At the time, I’m doing like double shots. I’m working the first match on the one show, hop in a f**king private plane, doing the last match of another show. I’ve been on the road for f**king 600 days straight, I’m beat to f**king s**t. I’m working my ass off. And the whole time, just trying to deal with these scripts and these crappy character things.”

On not being able to say what he wanted to: “And I’m not the only one of the boys who are suffering. Our whole generation is suffering with this. And guys like Steve would be, ‘Why don’t you just go off-script? Why don’t you just do like Austin 3:16?’ But the locker room, the whole situation, is different than when you [Austin] were here. You could just say Austin 3:16. I get a dumb f**king script. I’m trying to make the best of it. And like, I can’t go into all this on this podcast. I’m trying to stand up for like my generation and the boys, but I can’t get into all this right now man, like, I’m just trying to f**king — [sigh].’ It was a stopping point. I just wanted to talk about wrestling, because me and him both love wrestling. It’s why I love Steve, he’s one of my all-time favorites. But now I can get on a podcast and say whatever I want, so hit me up, Steve.”

On not being mad at Austin over it: “He definitely didn’t mean any harm by it. Like I totally got what he was trying to say, but like, I don’t know. He didn’t say it right, or — not a very good communication. And I was between a rock and a hard place too, you know. And the thing that sucks is, Steve Austin is everybody’s favorite wrestler of all-time. So who’s side are they gonna take? He was on top when wrestling was awesome.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Wade Keller with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.