Stone Cold refused to lose to top star at WrestleMania; made WWE change the original plan - Reports
Stone Cold Steve Austin has had some of the most iconic matches in WrestleMania history. One of those matches was against Scott Hall at WrestleMania 18. Hall was allegedly penciled in to win the match before Austin made WWE change their plans.
It was reported that Scott Hall wasn't happy that the company had him lose to Steve Austin at WrestleMania. Hall felt that he should have been the one to go over in order to restore his credibility in front of the WWE audience.
As per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE's original plan was to have Stone Cold lose to Razor Ramon. However, Austin 'balked' at the idea and the decision was changed because of Austin's star power.
''Hall told friends, and this is the same with what I was told at the time, that Hall was originally scheduled to win. Austin, who was, along with The Rock, one of the two biggest stars in the company at the time, balked at the idea and because of Austin’s star power, it was changed,'' said Meltzer.
Apart from Austin, many people thought that Hall wouldn't last long in WWE and it would have been a bad decision to have one of their biggest stars lose at WrestleMania.
Stone Cold Steve Austin sends Scott Hall of the nWo sailing over the top rope during their bout at WrestleMania X8. https://t.co/D2lYNrOE9m
Stone Cold will make his WrestleMania return this year
The Rattlesnake's match against Scott Hall was his penultimate WrestleMania match. He retired from in-ring competition soon after losing to The Rock at WrestleMania 19.
One Last Can. @FightOwensFight
You piece of trash. #WrestleMania twitter.com/WWE/status/150…
Stone Cold will be making a return this year at WrestleMania 38 when he faces off against Kevin Owens. While their segment is not being promoted as a match, rumors suggest that the two men will brawl with each other for at least 5-7 minutes.
WWE initially reportedly tried to get Austin to agree for a sanctioned match against Kevin Owens, but he did not agree.
Check out this video of five of the most memorable moments from Stone Cold Steve Austin's time in WWE!