At the height of the “Attitude Era” in the WWE, house shows would sell out just as quickly as WWE Raw live shows.
Fans would do anything just to get a glimpse of the stars of the federation.
A majority of those fans would drop down hard-earned money for one specific wrestler – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon knew fans wouldn’t be happy with a large helping of Austin chugging beers, saying “Hell yeah!” and playing to the crowds.
“A lot of times we would do that at a TV taping just because the crowd was there, and they’d crash the music and I’d go back down. Maybe I’d already done an interview or wrestled a match, and I’d go out there just to entertain the crowd and make sure they came back happy,” Austin told Pat McAfee on a recent episode of “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Austin recalled one specific instance where going out to entertain the crowd ended up costing Vince McMahon $14K.
“One time I just kept staying out there, staying out there. It was somewhere in New York where the union was involved.
Finally, I went in, and Vince calls me into his office the next day. He goes, ‘Goddamn, Steve, you cost me $14,000 extra dollars last night.’ It was overtime on the crew.
So he’s calling me out because I just cost him $14,000 just for that crew to stay overtime.
I’m like, ‘I’ll split it with you.’ He goes, ‘Goddamnit, I don’t want your money. I’m just telling you. Come on in a little bit earlier.’
We used to do that shit all the time. Towards the end – Kevin Dunn in the truck – he’d finally just get on the horn to the house and go, ‘Steve, come on in.’
That’s how we rolled back in the day, man. We were gonna give you your money’s worth.”
Austin also discussed his ability to catch beers in mid-air and just how many he ended up drinking each night.
“Well, I’ll never forget being over in Japan one time with the Dudleys, Stacy Kiebler, and a bunch of others. We drank something like 103 or 108.
For myself, I’d keep a 12 to 18 pack. Some people say you don’t know how to drink beer. I’m trying to entertain people, if I drink it normal how entertaining is that?
Half of it would go on me, half of it went on the audience, and when you drink half of each beer on an empty stomach you get a nice buzz.
That’s a sacrifice I was willing to take!”
Check out the entire interview with Austin on “The Pat McAfee Show’s” official YouTube channel.
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