Steve Austin On Which Broken Skull Challenge He Thinks He Could Do Well

In an interview with TV Insider, Steve Austin spoke about the upcoming fifth season of his CMT show Broken Skull Challenge, which returns on September 26.

On how his persona on the show is different from Stone Cold: “Being ‘Stone Cold’ was a lot of fun. That was a guy who was in his element talking a lot of trash…That was the business of pro wrestling. It was entertaining, but I was a pro wrestler. You have to remember it’s been 14 years since I was doing that job. These days when I wake up, I am Steve Austin, period…Here, I never want to be a blowhard. I don’t want to trash-talk them, belittle or demean anybody. Our job is to bring these athletes, who are some of the best in the United States, and give them a fair platform. That’s the guy I try to be.”

On the show’s growth: “I think with more experience, more reps and everything in life, you get a little bit better. I’ve been doing a podcast for four years. I’ll never be NPR-quality. That ain’t who or what I am. This show has a rough edge, and that’s the way we run it. It’s lean, mean. We got to be efficient. We have about 90 people out here on our crew. I wasn’t ribbing when I say we have the toughest crew in the business because it gets hotter than hell out here…We will carry a couple of challenges season through season, so some of them will be the same. We also want to make new ones. Sometimes I scratch my head, as well. I’m not the only brain here. I’m the face and voice, but there are a lot of smart people who come up with this stuff. It was my idea to create the show and pitch it to CMT, but there are many people behind the scenes who are coming up with great ideas. That’s how they tackle the task at hand. I let them do their job.”

On which challenge he could do: “Don’t put me on Heartbreak Hill. I’ll have to put on my leg braces. It would be fun to get down in that trench. Trench Warfare is one of my favorite challenges out here because you go head-to-head with another human being. I’ve seen people slide by each other and turn it into a foot race…if I’m going against you in that trench, I’m going to stomp your ass. You have to dig deep here if you want to make it through. I was talking to Vince [Cariati, the show’s executive producer] the other day. We were talking about how our model is we bring eight great athletes here, and your chances of success are really slim because seven are going home and only one gets to take on that Skullbuster. We make it as tough as possible on every one of those people. We give them a fair shot, but we make it tough. That’s the way we want it.”