Steve Austin: It Would Have Been Fun to Face Hulk Hogan

– During the latest edition of his podcast (transcript via wrestlinginc.com), Steve Austin talked about who he would like to travel back in time to wrestle, here are the highlights…

On who he wishes he could travel back in time to wrestle: “Right off jump street, if I went back to recent history, I’ve got to say Hulk Hogan because [he was] one of the biggest draws in the history of the [professional wrestling] business and everybody thought that match between ‘Stone Cold’ and Hulk Hogan should’ve happened a couple of years back. It never did just for whatever reason and I didn’t feel like stepping back in the ring and I think Hogan was ready to go. I wasn’t and so I never got a chance to wrestle the guy and it would have been fun to be in the ring with him.” Austin added, “so I’d say Hulk Hogan right off jump street and I would say because Bruno Sammartino was so highly respected back in the day, if I could go back in time to throw another guy on the list, it’d be a guy like Bruno Sammartino.”

On ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham Being Before His Time: “And then, a guy I would say was probably 20 years before his time was ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham. Now there was a guy that was kind of… he was really the first ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, but they didn’t see that in him back in the day and so Bob Backlund became the champion and ‘Superstar’ went on his way.”

On Wishing He Could Face Steamboat & Flair Again: “I would say Ric Flair. Ric Flair is my favorite pro wrestler in the history of the business. I think he’s the greatest world champion of all time, but I actually wrestled Ric Flair. Now, he wasn’t at his prime and I wasn’t at my best, so the program could have been outstanding had we focused on each other and run it in a long storyline, but I got a chance to wrestle Ric Flair, so I can’t put him on the list, but he’s probably the best that has ever done it.” Austin continued, “and I’ve got to throw Steamboat in there because I had so many great matches with Steamboat. But just to get in there with a Steamboat or the likes of a Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart one more time, that would be good. But, obviously, that will never happen. Those guys went down their way and I’ve gone down my road.”

On The Undertaker Looking Out For Him: “I would say my favorite match with The Undertaker was actually in a small town in Pennsylvania. I had just come back from getting dropped on my head, almost got paralyzed, and they started putting me in some matches after several months of being off. I was in a six-man tag team match, Undertaker, myself, and someone else against three other guys. I can’t remember who the guys were and I wasn’t really supposed to go out there and take many bumps, but due to the excitement of the crowd, all of the Austin 3:16 shirts, I said, ‘man, I’ve got to go out there and take a bump,’ so I tagged in, ran a highspot, took a couple of bumps, and tagged out. As the guy went into the ring, I stepped on the apron and The Undertaker looked at me with that look that only he can give and said beneath his breath, ‘what in the hell do you think you’re doing?’ and it was the fact that it was the legendary ‘Deadman’ actually cared that I went in there and I could have potentially been hurt and he should some compassion for his fellow teammate in the middle of a six-man match in a small town – it may have been Hershey, Pennsylvania. I thought it was awesome and that’s one of the reasons I have so much respect for the guy.”