Steve Austin says he initially didn’t handle retirement well and “just did a lot of stupid stuff”
During an interview with DJD Classics, WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin opened up about his life after retiring a wrestler in 2003…
“I retired when I was 38, man. You know how much money I left on the table? I mean, it’s not just about the money — it’s about the good times, being with the boys, traveling down the road, being in front of a crowd, getting that adrenaline rush. That’s what I lived and breathed. And so, I didn’t handle it well. And for about three years, I drank, I hunted, and I fished, and just did a lot of stupid stuff.
And one morning, I woke up and I went in the bathroom, and I just looked at myself in the mirror — it’s a true story. And I didn’t say this out loud, but I was thinking to myself, ‘Dude, the things you’re doing are not conducive to living a long life. You need to slow your ass down.’ And I didn’t have any designs on being a movie star, nothing like that, but I was driving a forklift before I got in the wrestling business, and as much fun as that was — and I loved it — after being on top of the world in the wrestling business, I didn’t want to drive a forklift again. I said, ‘You better get your ass down there to Los Angeles and try to do something in the entertainment business and do that.’
And so, hell, I packed up and moved in with Diamond Dallas Page down there in Los Angeles. Wasted about a year out there still, you know, searching for the bottom of a lot of bottles. And we found some people and started making some — I call them low-budget movies. Someone with a big ego would call them independents.
And man, I got a chance to host a reality series called Tough Enough for WWE. They reinvented it on USA Network and they said, ‘Hey man, we want you to host this show.’ And I said, I love it, because when I first retired, I was so upset that I had to leave the business that I loved, I had to be completely away from it. I couldn’t even watch it. I didn’t want nothing to do with it. If I can’t be the main guy, I don’t want to be any guy anywhere around.
All those years later, in — I think it was 2009 or 2011 — when they did Tough Enough, I had been away long enough, the wounds had healed, and I wanted to be closer to the business. I didn’t want to be taking bumps, but I wanted to help people learn the trade. So that put me back in touch with the business in a position that I really loved.
And after one season, they yanked it — and it did good numbers — but that helped me out a whole lot. And then after that, a couple other people contacted me, and the last show I did was Broken Skull Challenge. And some rocket scientist canceled that one, and I still ain’t figured that one out, right? But I found out that I really enjoyed — through my podcast — talking to people and shooting the breeze on the fly.”