One in every of the largest behind-the-scenes dramas in WWE because it was coming out of its infamous Attitude Era was the walkout of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on the corporate he helped launched into the mainstream. Austin walked out of Vince McMahon’s company after learning he was going to lose a King of the Ring qualifying match to Brock Lesnar, but has since clarified he didn’t need to waste the large match on free television with no construct. On a recent episode of “Something to Wrestle,” John Bradshaw Layfield looked back on the time, and said he was shocked that Austin walked out that night and didn’t come back.
“I didn’t consider that Steve was gone and going to be gone,” he said. “You gotta understand, we got there in ’95, and business was so bad, and rapidly, we’re selling out in every single place. That is the guy that did it. And rapidly, he’s gone? You’re thinking that he’s coming back, absolutely, he’s our guy. He’s our guy. So yeah, I used to be shocked that it didn’t occur.”
JBL said that he would have taken any odds that the conflict would have been fixed between McMahon and Austin inside every week or two, and even a couple of months, at most. He said that McMahon made up with “almost everybody” when it got here to business, no matter his personal feelings.
Austin would return to WWE in 2003 for his final full-time yr within the ring. He was brought back because of a postcard from “Good Ol’ JR,” Jim Ross, who was head of talent relations on the time.
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