12. Why He Was Fired From WCW And Refuses To Go Off The Top Rope
From 1991-1995 if you wanted to check out Steve Austin, you’d have to check him out in WCW. Now the fact that he was in WCW is probably not all that shocking, as many wrestlers were there before hitting it in WWE, but the story behind Austin’s firing impacted his entire career.
In an informal setting, Austin admitted that the reason why he never went off the top rope was because he tore his tricep while jumping off the top rope when he was wrestling in Japan, and that he had learned to keep his dumb ass on the mat. It’s definitely a lesson that was burned into his mind, as that injury was one of the big reasons behind him being let go from WCW.
But that was far from the only reason, and WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff admitted at the time that Austin was not a marketable wrestler and was also difficult to deal with.
Back in 2014, Bischoff appeared on Steve Austin’s podcast where the situation got cleared up a little bit more. Bischoff claimed that Tony Schiavone (who worked for WCW) called Austin and said that he wanted him to come in and cut some promos to keep his interest up while Austin was recovering from injury, but when he called Austin’s wife picked up the phone. It was reported that Austin was told to appear at the tapings, but in the background Austin was heard yelling that he wasn’t going to the tapings.
As a result, Tony Schiavone told Bischoff that he wasn’t coming. Bischoff obviously felt this was some bullsh*t, and it led to Austin’s dismissal.
You can understand why Bischoff also described WCW as being “A bit of a clusterf***!”
Discussion about this post