Professional wrestling legend and former WCW World Tag Team Champion Buff Bagwell who is also a former NWA Blue Ridge Television Champion recently talked about the transition of Stone Cold Steve Austin from WCW to WWE. He also said that Vince McMahon loved to bring talents from WCW and turn them into stars.
Steve Austin was mainly founded by WCW back in 1991. He stayed with the promotion for four years but he had never been treated as a main event star in WCW. It was quite unfortunate for them that they could not see what he was capable of.
Buff Bagwell Talks Steve Austin’s Transition From WCW To WWE
Something that Vince McMahon did not overlook. Boston has always been treated had a mid card star in WCW he won all the mid card championships in the promotion including the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and also the WCW World Television Championship.
After he left WCW in 1995 he had a short run in the ECW which was one of the most famous professional wrestling promotions back in the time. On the same year he joined WWE and that had to be the best decision made by him and also Vince McMahon who decided to sign him.
At first he started working as a member of the Million Dollar Corporation and he was named as the Ringmaster. He played a heel gimmick throughout 1995 and 1996. He was an amazing heel as well. In 1996, Wrestling Observer Newsletter addressed him as the best heel.
In 1997 he turned babyface for the first time in the WWE after his submission match against Bret “The Hitman” Hart which is by far one of the best matches of his career, and that was the particular match we can mark as the beginning of the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin.
In a very short amount of time he went on to become one of the biggest names not only in WWE but in the world of professional wrestling. He is one of the biggest reasons behind the huge success of the attitude era of the WWE Attitude Era of the WWE. It was really unfortunate that he had to return from Professional wrestling in 2003 because of his career threatening neck injury. WWE inducted him into the Hall Of Fame in 2009.
Buff Bagwell who is also a former NWA Blue Ridge Television Champion recently spoke to Who The Fook Are These Guys?! Podcast where he talked about the transition of Stone Cold Steve Austin from WCW WWE. He also said that Vince McMahon loved to bring talents from WCW and turn them into stars. He said;
“Steve was hurt for us a lot. He really was. He tore his bicep. And when you’re hurt with pro wrestling, the deal is, we’re live TV. This is live. So if you got hurt, it’s kind of hard to put you in the thing and keep you going, because you’re doing us no good.
“The main thing that made me successful and a lot of guys’ success was, besides my broken neck, I wasn’t hurt for 11 years. I never missed a match in 11 years. But still, that was his thing. Injuries, they happen. But Eric felt like that was a problem.
“Here’s the thing, McMahon loved taking guys like Steve Austin and showing WCW, ‘look, I took one of your guys and look what I’ve fu**ing done with him. He’s a fu**ing star. You let him go, I turned him into Stone Cold. You let Vinnie Vegas go, Kevin Nash, and now he’s Diesel, making millions.’
“He got off on taking talent we’d give up and turn them into big talent, to show us what we had fu**ed up on. He loved doing that, he loved it. So if you ever came from us, you went to him and he became the man to push you through the roof.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript