Jim Ross Discusses Steve Austin Walking Out on WWE In 2002, Recalls His Personal Issues At The Time

On the latest edition of Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed Steve Austin walking out of WWE in 2002 after refusing to lose to Brock Lesnar on RAW and being unhappy with the ideas WWE creative proposed to him. JR said that Austin was fried and dealing with personal issues with his health and marriage that, coupled with his unhappiness with WWE creative, led to his departure. Highlights are below.

On trying to defuse the situation: “I tried to defuse the situation enough to get the two decision makers, Vince and Steve, together. Steve was just tired of fighting. He’s just tired of the consternation and the lack of respect in his eyes, and look, I’m not telling you that everything Steve said was the way it was from the standpoint that he processed a lot of information that he might have been able to process it better in a different way, I think he would agree with that, but Conrad, he was fried, he was done. We let him smolder, the ashes were still hot as far as his passion was concerned.”

On Austin having marital issues at the time: “Again, I don’t have have any magical, if we had done this, everything would have been just fine. That’s bullshit. There was no this to do. You got a guy that has a lot of things at play. Personally, in the wrestling business, I had a chance, and one of my great pleasures in life was becoming great friends with Stone Cold, I knew his personal side, I knew he was having issues at home, I knew that his marriage on rocky ground and of course it ended up dissolved. The point he made in his book, the night before his issue in Atlanta on Monday, Debra wasn’t even in Columbus, they had an argument and she went home to Atlanta. So that was an ongoing thing.

On Austin’s health issues at the time: “And then again, I can’t stress enough the health issue, goddamn man, it’s not just having it, well, I might not be able to make all this big money and I can’t be on top forever, he was dealing with an issue that, if done incorrectly with somebody he didn’t feel comfortable with, and confident with, he would not be the same man that he is today. He wouldn’t be up walking around. That neck issue was a bad piece of business, not withstanding the fact that he had two bad knees, which a lot of guys do, but the neck thing, when you can have paralysis and not know what it’s going to take to make that happen.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Grilling JR with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.