Steve Austin’s win over Scott Hall at WrestleMania 18 was never supposed to happen—at least according to Hall.
In an archival RF Video shoot interview recorded years before his passing, Hall claimed WWE’s original plan had him beating Austin on March 17, 2002, in Toronto. That’s not speculation from Hall, either. He said WWE told him weeks in advance that he was going over Austin, while Hulk Hogan would lose to The Rock on the same card.
The nWo was supposed to leave WrestleMania with one massive win and one massive loss. Hogan would put over The Rock, but Hall would take down Stone Cold. Hall said WWE came out swinging with the nWo at first. The group destroyed The Rock, trapped him inside an ambulance and smashed into it with a truck. Then the gas pedal suddenly came off.
“Had it been done the way we dreamed, Vince could’ve made the nWo even bigger, but he chose not to. Some stuff was cool—like when we beat up The Rock in Chicago and smashed the ambulance. That’s the way Vince does stuff, like Hollywood. We were all going, ‘Whoa, this is cool.’ That’s about the last time we did anything.”
Then came the WrestleMania swerve. Hall claimed Vince McMahon called him in only one or two days before the show and flipped the finish. Austin was winning. Hall was losing. Hall said he had no problem taking the loss. What pissed him off was being told for weeks that he was beating Austin, only for WWE to yank the win at the last second.
“We were told weeks in advance Hulk was going to put Rock over and I was going to beat Austin. Then, a day or two before the pay-per-view in Toronto, Vince calls me in and changes the finish. I went, ‘What? Okay, no problem—but why call me? You’re wasting my time. You don’t want to do business. You’re a mark.’ I felt lied to. I was just happy I made it to WrestleMania.”
Austin ended up putting Hall away after multiple Stone Cold Stunners. Kevin Nash was thrown out from ringside, came back and got dropped before Austin finished the job. The match never became the classic WWE may have wanted, and Hall didn’t pretend otherwise. He admitted the chemistry was not there, but he refused to dump the blame on Austin. Hall praised Austin’s talent, promos and the way he treated him behind the scenes. He also believed Austin may have matched up better with Nash.
“It got better, but I didn’t have my best matches with Steve, and I’m sure he’d say the same. Some people you click with, some you don’t. I’m not blaming Steve at all—he’s super talented, a great interview and treated me like gold. I thought maybe Kev working with him and me outside would’ve been better.”
Austin beating Hall has been locked into WrestleMania history for more than two decades, but Hall’s story blows open a much different version of that night. Steve Austin was originally set to lose, Hall was supposed to get the nWo’s biggest win of the night, and Vince McMahon killed the finish days before the bell rang.
Would Scott Hall beating Steve Austin have saved the nWo’s WWE run, or did WWE make the right call by changing the finish? Leave your feedback in the comments.
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