Here’s why Stone Cold Steve Austin never wanted to collaborate with Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit

Cold as ice The Texas Rattlesnake was one of the most sought-after stars in the WWE during his time, and he had some classic matchups. When Steve Austin was at the pinnacle of his game, almost every WWE superstar wanted to work with him, and Kurt Angle was one of them.

During a recent episode of AdFreeShows.com’s ‘The Kurt Angle Show,’ the Olympic gold medalist discussed a Monday Night RAW encounter from 2001 versus Chris Benoit and how the contest scared away Steve Austin. On July 11, 2001, Kurt Angle faced Chris Benoit in a Steel Cage bout during the RAW main event. Throughout the 15-minute match, Angle and Benoit were involved in many risky situations, including a German suplex off the top rope.

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit were newcomers to the WWE, but they were well on their way to becoming superstars. Angle mentioned that he and Benoit wanted to impress Stone Cold, who was one among the attentive observers of the event. “Is that the German location? In the match, the German place was the most risky location we did. It may not appear so, but taking that one backwards off the top rope is the most difficult. There’s a good possibility you’ll land on your head; in fact, you’ll probably land on your head 99 percent of the time. So, it’s one of those take-a-risk actions where you don’t know if you’ll be hurt or not, but Chris and I needed to make a point that night, so we did it,” Angle remarked.

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit both sought WWE program with Steve Austin, and a strong showing on RAW would have enhanced their chances of landing a blockbuster rivalry with one of WWE’s all-time biggest stars.

Angle and Benoit apparently frightened Austin due to the high-risk aspect of their battle, rather than generating a favorable impression. At the time, the WWE Hall of Famer refused to work with Benoit and Angle because he thought they were too wild in the ring.

After viewing the match detailed above, Steve Austin informed Kurt Angle several years later that he was afraid to wrestle them. “We were up-and-coming artists. Austin was on the sidelines, watching the game. We were hoping to make a good impression on Austin. We went a little too far, and I believe we scared him away. We were attempting to show him that we wanted to collaborate with him,” Kurt said, “These guys are insane bastards, I’m not working with them,” Austin’s statement.

“He even told me later that further down the road, and we just pushed all we had into that bout,” Angle remarked. “Chris and I were really insane that night; his flying headbutt off the top, my moonsault, they could have all been finishers, but we went a bit too far ahead. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the match was tremendous. However, from a professional wrestling sense, Austin did not want to cooperate with us. In the end, we had to win his respect in a different method “Angle added.