Steve Austin Reveals Backstage Argument With Vince McMahon Over His Latest WWE Raw Appearance

Steve Austin's lone appearance on WWE television this year came back on March 16, which WWE dubbed "Austin 3:16 Day." His arrival came on a episode of Raw back when the company was first starting to appear inside of the empty WWE Performance Center and resulted in a painfully awkward (yet viral) promo between Austin and Byron Saxton. Austin even admitted after the show that he accidentally kicked Saxton in the groin during the segment and wound up injuring his foot.

"My sincere apologies to [Byron Saxton] for kicking him dead square in the balls. I don't know what hurts worse, his balls or my foot. I will go in for X-Rays tomorrow. Byron, Ice em down for 20 minutes every other hour. That's what Vince did. All the best," Austin wrote at the time.

"The Texas Rattlesnake" seemed to know the segment was going to be a bust ahead of time, as he admitted he had a backstage argument with Vince McMahon beforehand.

"It was really strange and I wasn't happy with the creative because I wanted to sit down and maybe do an interview with Byron Saxton or something to talk about something that was a shoot," Austin said in a new interview with Pat McAfee (h/t WrestleTalk). "Vince says, 'God damn, Steve, people are just gonna be in a bad way. Go out there and entertain them and do this promo.' I went back to his trailer three times. So, anyway, I ended up doing the promo, it sucked, it was hard."

In a separate interview with ESPN's Monday Tailgate this week, Austin praised McAfee for his work with WWE in 2020.

"Hey man, he puts it all on the line, he's going for it. I think his verbal skills, he's slaying everybody, but he's not afraid to go out there and put it all on the line. You wouldn't expect it from a guy who goes out there and kicks a football, but Pat McAfee is bada—. I think he's doing a really good job. I'd give him a solid A."

WWE's next pay-per-view, TLC, takes place this Sunday. Check out the card below:

• WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles (TLC Match)
• WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens (TLC Match)
• Firefly Inferno Match: "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Sasha Banks vs. Carmella
• Raw Tag Team Championships: The New Day vs. The Hurt Business
• WWE Women's Tag Team Championships: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka and TBA