Steve Austin Reflects On His Health Scare Before WrestleMania 19, Origins of ‘What?’ Chant

Steve Austin famously had a health scare before his match at WrestleMania 19, a matter that he recently reflected on. Austin faced The Rock at the 2003 PPV in what turned out to be his final match until WrestleMania 38. The match almost ended up in jeopardy when Austin had heart palpitations the night before.

Austin reflected on the incident as well as his failed 2001 heel turn in his interview on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. Austin talked about how the heel turn led to the “What?” chant that became part of his legacy. You can see the highlights below:

On His Incident The Evening Before WrestleMania 19:

“It was just a thing where I was running hard and dehydrated and drank a lot of caffeine. I remember my legs were kind of shaking at the gym that day, and it was just kind of a precursor for what was to come. I was working out with Kevin Nash, and we were sitting there doing cardio and talking on the recumbent bikes. Then when I got into the hotel, I think was at Grand Hyatt, and I was up on one of the top floors, 27, 28 and goddamn, my heart just started beating out of my chest. It was like about 180 beats a minute. That sounds crazy, but that’s what it was. Then the doors opened, and I’ve told this story many times, and there’s a lady that worked in the office. Her name was Liz, real nice lady, and God damn, I looked at Liz. I said, ‘Liz, I’m in trouble.’ My room was right there.

“Went in my room, and she called 911, and a couple of ambulances came and all that stuff, and they told me about the hospital. But they had to kayfabe me to the hospital because, you know, I was in the main event. So anyway we get there, they do a bunch of tests on me, check me out and everything, and thought I had a pulmonary embolism and stuff like that. Turns out, man I was just running ragged. And so anyway, doctor never really cleared me. I’ve said this before, and went to the ring the next day and put over the Rock and took care of business. I think the match is okay, but that was just a product of running too hard, too fast.”

On the “What?” Chant Still Being Used By Fans:

“Yeah, a lot of people wish I wouldn’t have done that. But it just turned into something to do, because when I turned heel, not everybody wanted me to turn heel, but I was just set on turning heel, because I’ve always liked working heel so much. [That was your call?] Yeah, and I wish Vince would have shot me down, or I wish I felt it in the ring at night. I should have just said, ‘Hey, man, we’re changing this. Watch the stunner.’ And I should have just stunned his ass and never went down that road. But as a means to an end, I was leaving Christian a voicemail and kept saying, What? What? I just turned it into this thing to berate somebody, to belittle somebody as a heel. So I use that as a mechanism to do that as a means to an end, to try to get heat.

“And that whole attempt was over-trying just to compensate and gain ground on getting heat. I remember Hunter and myself as a Two Man Power Trip just whacking people with chairs. I mean, you know, trying so hard through violence to get heat, which is not always the best way to get heat, and by laying stuff in. It was an interesting period, the heel thing. If I could go back in time, I would not have done it, because I didn’t need to. I think Jim Ross said it best, nobody ever wanted to hate John Wayne. I wasn’t John Wayne, but I was the anti-hero. I got over by being the way I was. So to turn bad, to try to do worse things, I don’t know, just it didn’t work. It wasn’t successful. We got a chance to push the character in different directions, in different dimensions, but I don’t think we were really ringing up the box office doing that.”