Bruce Prichard on Steve Austin Rejecting a Program With Jeff Jarrett Over Their Longstanding Heat and Austin’s Relationship With Debra

– During the latest edition of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard addressed Stone Cold Steve Austin in the late 90s and Austin rejecting a match with Billy Gunn and a program with Jeff Jarrett. Below are some highlights.

Bruce Prichard on Steve Austin not wanting to work with Billy Gun: “Steve didn’t want to work with Billy. He didn’t feel like coming off of what he came off of there wasn’t — and again, this is where you get into the trap. If every week you’ve got to top yourself and every week has to be better than the last and bigger than the last week, you go from this big, huge angle to, ‘We just want you to wrestle a cold match against Billy.’ ‘What’s the story?’ ‘Well, we don’t have one.’ ‘Then don’t put me on TV unless I’ve got a story involved in something.’ And they worked themself into a situation of, ‘Well, f***. How do we top it? What’s next?’ I think Steve was almost to the point –I don’t think he was over-exposed, but quite possibly. He was close to it. He go to that point where, what are you doing to do next? At first, those ideas come at you, but after a couple of months, it’s not ‘What are we going to do next?’ It’s, ‘F***. What are we going to do now?’ And that’s where they were.”

“And Vince [McMahon] had drilled that into everyone’s mind to the point of, ‘Steve is special, and we’re not going to just put him into a match. It’s not going to happen. Steve, whatever he does, has got to be involved in something special. If we’re going to put him on TV, it has to be with a top guy and not just so he can be on for TV’s sake. That was the deal with Billy. There was no story and no reason to do it.”

Bruce Prichard on Steve Austin rejecting a program with Jeff Jarrett: “There was heat with Jarrett going back to when Steve worked in Tennessee. There was professional heat there, Jeff being Jerry Jarrett’s son, payoffs and what have you. I don’t think there was any love loss there at that time. … But also, it’s the same argument with Billy Gunn as far as working with Jeff at that time. It was ice cold. There was no reason to do it. No one could give him a storyline reason to do it. Add in to that the whole Debra situation, where, ‘I don’t want to be working against my wife on TV.’ Wasn’t his wife. I think they were dating at the time. But I don’t want to be working against her on TV when he was the most recognizable star that we had to be out in public. Everybody’s going to see them. They’re taking pictures everywhere. As little private life and as little that he had to himself, he didn’t want to jeopardize that.”

“So, he didn’t want to do it for a variety of reasons. I think a lot of it was the whole longstanding heat, the fact that Jeff wasn’t in a position — there wasn’t an issue — it was going to be ice old. It’s the same argument as Billy Gunn. If you want to keep going, go to the Debra deal. Didn’t make sense.”

If using the above quotes, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.