WWE’s Monday Night Raw opened this week with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s iconic music ringing throughout the arena. Only instead of “The Texas Rattlesnake,” out walked Kevin Owens in a bald cap while wearing Austin’s iconic “Austin 3:16” shirt, cut-off jeans and knee braces. He then proceeded to imitate Austin’s catchphrases, including “Gimme a hell yeah!” and “What?” before talking about how Owens was going to embarrass him at WrestleMania. He even tricked the Chicago crowd into thinking Austin was coming out for real by hitting the music again, only to start laughing at everyone.
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Owens then tried to close out the promo by having the stagehand toss him a few beers for a beer bash, but he kept dropping the cans. He demanded the crew member hand him a beer in the ring, then nailed him with a Stunner.
Austin explained why he chose to appear at this year’s WrestleMania while on The Rich Eisen Show last week — “This opportunity comes up, Kevin Owens starts running me down and gets my attention. It was a thing where, I kind of said, ‘I’m never going to get in the ring again.’ In this business, never say never. I said I would never get in, but prompted by the right person at the right time, hell, I wish he would have pissed me off a little sooner than he did to give me more time to prep. Once you step into the ring, it’s like stepping onto a football field, that’s where business happens. We don’t know what it’s going to escalate to. I’ve been working on my conditioning.
:Had it been anywhere else other than Jerry’s Place….it’s a two-night event, WrestleMania is biggest show of the year, to be part of that is really special to me. I’m doing this for me. I’m going out there to have a damn blast,” he added. “I’m gonna have fun and I’m gonna wear these two fists out on Kevin Owens. I’m sure he’s going to get some to because he’s had an amazing career. I’m glad he pissed me off when he did.”
