WWE Hall of Famer reveals major mistake he made before WrestleMania match against The Rock
WWE veteran and Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin recently sat down for an interview with ESPN, and touched upon several topics, including his iconic WrestleMania trilogy against The Rock. Both Austin and The Rock are regarded by many as two of the greatest in-ring competitors in the industry. The duo competed in three WrestleMania events, with two of these matches headlining The Show of Shows.
While talking about his WrestleMania 15 match against The Rock, which was also their first 'Mania encounter, Austin revealed an amusing bit about his demeanor during the match. Austin was not in a good mood that night. On one hand, he was happy that legendary WWE announcer Jim Ross called that match. On the other, though, Austin was going through a divorce at the time and forgot to bring his ring vest for the WrestleMania main event.
This resulted in Austin walking down to the ring for this high-stakes match against The Rock in a T-shirt. Austin was mad at the fact that he came down to the ring without wearing proper gear that suited his gimmick.
So 15 was really cool for Jim Ross to call that match, but I was mad at 15 because hell, I was going through a hell of a divorce and forgot my d**n ring vest, and so I had to walk to the ring in a t-shirt, and you never want to walk to the ring in a t-shirt when it's Wrestlemania and you want to look like a million bucks in full gimmick. You're not trying to sell a t-shirt, you're trying to put on a show. So that s**ked on that standpoint.
Austin opens up on his WrestleMania 15 match:
A year prior to the match, Austin had defeated Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania 14 to kick off the Austin Era, as Jim Ross aptly put it at the time. By the time WrestleMania 15 came around, Austin had become the hottest act in all of wrestling and was selling out arenas one after the other. Not to mention, the humongous amount of T-shirts WWE was selling with Austin's 3:16 quote slapped on them.
The Road to WrestleMania 15 saw Vince McMahon winning the Royal Rumble match with help from The Rock, who was the WWE Champion at the time. Weeks later, Austin bagged the opportunity to face The Rock in the main event of 'Mania by defeating McMahon in a Steel Cage match. At WrestleMania, Austin defeated The Rock to become WWE Champion, much to Vince McMahon's chagrin.