Stone Cold Steve Austin Quotes

When I was growing up, I thought there was only WWE. That's it. One promotion in the world. And then, as I grew up, I found that there's local wrestling. There's WCW, there's ECW. In Mexico, there are the luchadores. And then, finally, I realized there's wrestling in Japan.

People are finally figuring it out that, at the end of the day, that WCW created some of the best talent in the history of the world. It was a great run.

I was in FCW for about six months. It was roundabout 2009; a lot of guys started to retire, and they didn't have guys coming in from other companies to replace them.

Pro wrestling was there, and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers, but unfortunately, at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy - you know, the company didn't want to lose another top performer.

I've been talking to certain wrestlers on the phone lately, and certain female wrestlers that were huge stars ten years ago, and the first thing I ask them is 'do you still want to work?' Do they want to talk, or do they want to wrestle or do something else in the business?

I was miserable in WCW. I knew I wasn't going to go any higher there, and jumping to WWE hadn't even crossed my mind. I couldn't stop wondering, 'Is this it? Is this what I worked my whole life for?'

I do not see Dean Ambrose leaving WWE to go somewhere else.

When I ran WCW, I obviously had a lot of control over the business, but when I was in TNA, I had no control over anything other than creative.

I honestly was supposed to always be a wrestler. I was never hired into any business as an announcer. That was just something I ended up falling into.

I'm coming to AEW because I believe in what they are doing.

WWE asked me to be a coach 3 times before I left.

Actually, a person asked me if I was ever going to come back to WWE. I told them that if I came back, it probably wouldn't be as WWE Superstar, because the young guys are really what it's all about. Bringing me back as an announcer is a great position for me to actually go out and make the young guys bigger stars.

I came into ECW in Philadelphia in 1996 and left in 2001 - a much bigger, worldwide star than I arrived - and I thank ECW for that.

I remember when I had just left WWE and I was wrestling in England and Germany, I could just tell that this influx of this new wave of wrestling was coming much like it felt when I began wrestling back in '99.

I got my break in the business with the now-defunct Bill Watts' TWF, the old Mid-South. Which was really, in many ways, the predecessor to ECW in its time, in that age. It was a really cool, high-impact, snug type of product.

The nWo pursued me for a while. To be perfectly honest, I think WCW management purposely kept me off 'Nitro' for a while to keep the nWo from getting to me.

I was working at Papa John's full-time. I had just quit my part-time job at UPS. I was there for two years.

All the competitors knew the importance of Halloween Havoc. It was the WCW equivalent to SummerSlam.

I can speak for myself personally, I loved ECW. I loved everything about it. I loved the crew, I loved the fans, the style, working there.

WCW had its moment, and that's what it was: it was a moment. And we created some great stories and changed the industry to a large degree.

Really, I didn't even want to go to WWE in 2001. I knew that it wasn't my favorite style, my favorite showcasing of my abilities, but it was definitely the best business move. At the time, there was nowhere else to go anyway - ECW was gone, WCW was gone. So, when I first came in, I was seriously frustrated trying to adapt.

I always had watched pro wrestling. I happened to be watching the WWE Network one day and started watching differently: I wasn't watching it as a fan, but instead I was watching it as something that I could possibly be a part of.

ECW stands for Extremely Crappy Wrestling.

I owe my career to Paul Heyman.

I've watched people who were better actors than me disappear, and they're selling insurance now.