During a recent episode of his Steve Austin Show podcast, WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin spent some time talking about his current relationship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Paul “Triple H” Levesque compared to his first impressions of the two mega-stars and successful businessmen.
As “The Texas Rattlesnake” explained, he first met Triple H in their early days in WCW and the two immediately hit it off, even though they didn’t run in the same circles behind-the-scenes.
“I met Triple H when he first came into WCW, and here he came in, good looking dude, good worker, even back then. He wasn’t too long out of Killer Kowalski’s school,” Austin recalled. “I think he’d probably been working. He worked several matches because he was already very polished even when he came into WCW. We hit it off right off the bat. Same sense of humor. I was a little bit older than him, but I hadn’t been in the business too much longer, if any. So, man, we introduced ourselves, to each other and I knew he had a bright future in the business. And I don’t know what he thought about me. We always hit it off. Same sense of humor, same taste in music. He was a huge bodybuilding, powerlifting fan, always hit the gym. He wasn’t a drinker – I respected that. Good dude, great sense of humor, low-key, one of the boys. So that’s how I met Triple H and we hit it off from day one. And, to this day, whenever we see each other, it’s like old times. We didn’t run in the same crowds. We didn’t travel together. He had his crew and I had mine or I was traveling solo at the time. But nothing but good things.”
Austin also claimed that he and The Rock got along right off the bat as well, even if the two had a deep competitive nature with each other.
“I remember when The Rock came in, Rock, man, you knew this guy had potential when you saw him. He was a good looking guy. You just knew the gimmick wasn’t right at first. And then, he ended up changing his gimmick around. He joined the Nation and then turned into The Rock,” said Austin. “And then, me and Rock started working together. I was always cool with The Rock. I knew he had potential. I think everybody did. He had the right frame, the right look, really smart, charismatic, so you saw a lot of potential in him as he came in, but the gimmick wasn’t right. But, boy, when he turned into The Rock and joined the Nation and started turning heel. I mean, the people rejected him first as a baby, but they took to him as a heel and he had some serious, serious heat. And then, of course, when he turned baby, he was mega over.”
According to the WWE Hall Of Famer, he is still friends with both Triple H and The Rock to this day, even if he doesn’t keep in regular contact with either guy.
“Myself and The Rock have probably worked with Triple H many, many times, but I probably worked with The Rock more times and the chemistry with both guys in the ring, the three stages of hell match that I had with Triple H in Las Vegas [Nevada],” said Austin. “It was a hell of a match. We worked so many matches and I was really getting hot when I was working with Triple H. Rock was really getting hot when he was working with me, so we kind of… and of course, when I was gone, the feud those two guys had while I was getting my neck surgery was awesome. But I hit it off with both guys instantly. I remain great friends with each of them. We don’t call or text each other, but whenever we’re in the same room, it’s like nothing ever changed, no time has ever passed and we start shooting the breeze and picking it up from where we left off. And nothing but respect.”
Check out the complete episode of the Steve Austin Show podcast at PodcastOne.com. H/T to WrestlingInc.com for transcribing the above Steve Austin quotes.
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