“Stone Cold” Steve Austin or Hulk Hogan — who is the more legendary professional wrestler?
If that question is posed to Steve Austin, he’ll answer with Steve Austin.
When asked on a Dallas-area radio station (105.3 The Fan) who was the bigger wrestling legend of the two, Austin offered this opinion:
“If you’re talking to me, it’s going to be Stone Cold Steve Austin. If you guys are talking to Hulk, it’s going to be him… I respect Hulk Hogan because his career lasted some 30 odd years. I think I lasted about 15, but during my peak years, I took the business to a height it had never seen before.”
With his outsized personality, Hogan is/was known more for his charisma than his in-ring athletic prowess. In the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony, CEO Vince McMahon deemed Austin, a six-time champion in the then-WWF, as “the biggest superstar in WWE history.”
Austin acknowledged that the Hulkster enjoys wide-ranging name recognition even among non-wrestling fans, however. “His name might come to your mind before mine, so I give that guy all due respect. He had a tremendous run.”
As far as WWE’s current “PG” product, Austin — who used to drink beer in the ring during matches — recommended that the promotion should focus more on great wrestling, emphasize the titles more, and present meaningful story lines, while avoiding “juvenile or sophomoric humor” and “shenanigans.”
That being said, Austin insisted he loves WWE and pro wrestling, and a return to the “attitude” era is unnecessary — instead he suggested that a better approach would be to remove some of the comedy and make it a wrestling show again.
Austin played football at the University of North Texas before embarking on a pro wrestling career. He was forced to retire as an active WWE wrestler as a result of knee and neck injuries. Austin admitted during the radio interview that the adrenaline rush of performing in the ring can never be duplicated elsewhere.
Steve Austin is the host of a new reality show called the Broken Skull Challenge on the CMT network. He previously hosted the reboot of WWE’s Tough Enough .
Are you stunned, as it were, or not about Steve Austin’s assessment of his wrestling career compared to Hulk Hogan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdxC6cMqTQE
[image via s_bukley / Shutterstock.com ]