Stone Cold Steve Austin allegedly thought Dave Meltzer had taken a direct shot at him — and instead of letting it sit, he called him.
Meltzer claims on Wrestling Observer Radio that Austin reached out after seeing a story that made it look like the Wrestling Observer founder had called him a “sheep.” Austin apparently wanted to know why Meltzer would say something like that, but according to Meltzer, the whole thing was a misunderstanding created after his original comments got twisted online.
The mess started when another wrestling personality mocked Wrestling Observer readers by calling them “sheep.” Meltzer responded by pointing out that plenty of legendary wrestlers have read the Observer over the years, and Austin was one of the names he used.
“Yeah. So sheep like Bruno Sammartino and I forgot who are the names I used, but one of them, one of them was Austin. Okay.”
Meltzer’s point was that calling Observer readers “sheep” would also mean lumping in names like Austin, Bruno Sammartino, the Funks, Lou Thesz and Eddie Guerrero. That apparently wasn’t the version Austin saw.
Meltzer says he woke up the next morning to a call from Stone Cold, who believed Meltzer had personally slapped that label on him. What started as Austin looking for an explanation ended up turning into a much longer conversation.
“And, you know, I mean, the Funks, whatever, Lou Thesz, you know, oh, you know, whatever. You know, the list of famous wrestlers who read the Observer. Eddie Guerrero or whatever. Now then, whatever. It’s, it’s a long list. And at the top level, it’s really, it’s, it’s pretty long list. So anyway, yesterday morning I wake up, I get a phone call from, from, from Steve Austin and, and he’s mad because he thinks I called him a sheep and goes on good terms, right? And it’s like, yeah, we’re on really good terms. We ended up talking for about 30, 40 minutes, but about a million different subjects when it came to wrestling and not wrestling as well. But it was funny because he goes, I, you know, I read something that Dave Meltzer called Steve Austin a sheep. And he goes, why would he say that? And it’s like, so that’s, that’s like aggregation and there’s some other thing.”
According to Meltzer, Austin wasn’t looking to start a war once the two actually spoke. The “sheep” issue got cleared up, and the conversation stretched for around 30 to 40 minutes while they talked about wrestling and plenty of other topics. Garrett Gonzales then questioned whether somebody had personally told Austin about the story, but Meltzer said Austin may have simply seen the version that was already floating around online.
“Or he saw, he saw an aggregated version on a site saying Dave Meltzer calls Steve Austin a sheep. Yes.”
Meltzer also made sure not to pin the misunderstanding on Austin. His issue was with how the original comment had been turned into something much more personal before Stone Cold ever saw it.
“And you know, talk about taking something out of context. And I’m sure someone will do this and saying, I’m blaming Steve Austin for taking it out of context, which what he read was not out of context, but with someone he aggregated was, you know, completely clueless of what I was saying. So there you go.”
If Meltzer’s version is accurate, Austin went into the call thinking he had been insulted and came out of it realizing the story wasn’t what it looked like. What could have become a nasty public back-and-forth instead ended with Stone Cold and Meltzer clearing the air and talking for nearly 40 minutes.
What do you make of Meltzer’s claim that Steve Austin personally called him over the “sheep” story? Do you think Austin was right to go straight to the source? Drop your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
