Austin Theory had a night to remember at WrestleMania 38 as Vince McMahon was in his corner, he wrestled Pat McAfee, and he took a stunner from Steve Austin.
Though Theory was not victorious on the night against McAfee, he created a WrestleMania moment with his match and the post-match angle with "Stone Cold" and Mr. McMahon.
Speaking to Mark Andrews on My Love Letter to Wrestling, Theory revealed when he learned of Austin's involvement in the segment.
"I'm walking down the hall, and this is the second day of WrestleMania, we're a few hours away from the show," he recalled. "Stone Cold is getting ready to get on a golf cart because the arena is so big and they're driving him around. He had someone driving him around and he stopped and was talking to someone. I was like, 'I have to introduce myself, this is my first time meeting Stone Cold,' I introduced myself and he hangs onto my hand, looks me in the eyes, and is like, 'I'll be seeing you later tonight.' I'm like, 'What?' It was pretty cool. A little bit later, I got pulled aside and it was super private, but basically what was going to happen, and I was like, 'wait, what? What's going on?'"
Theory jumped up to sell his Stunner and McAfee spit out beer following his Stunner.
Mr. McMahon? He had a bit more trouble as he stumbled after the kick and went down awkwardly for the Stunner.
Asked about the backstage reaction following the segment, Theory said, "It was really cool. When Mr. McMahon walked to the back, everyone was screaming at him. It was a lot of the female wrestlers, they were screaming at him and messing with him. He was like, 'Okay, okay.' It was proud, like being proud of your dad. Pat comes through and everyone was proud of what we did out there and everyone enjoyed it. You know it went well when everyone in the back enjoyed it. It was awesome. Even days after and now, hearing so much about it, you know you made that WrestleMania moment, which is really cool to me."
In reporting about the reaction to Vince's sell on the Stunner, Fightful Select wrote on April 7, "Those that Fightful spoke to did say that there were plenty of laughs had by the team and Vince McMahon himself in the days that followed the event. The line we were given is that McMahon recognized it was a terrible performance and sell of the Stunner, but chalked it up to "as long as people were laughing and entertained, it's okay."
Steve Austin dropped Austin Theory with a Stunner at WrestleMania and just over a week later, Theory dropped Austin from his name. You can learn more about the change by clicking here.
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