3. Vince McMahon Called Crisis Meeting Over Steve Austin In October
Come the latter months of 1998, Steve Austin's attention had started to turn elsewhere aside from wrestling. At least, this is the story told by Vince Russo. Austin had been exploring Hollywood, keen to cut his teeth as an actor and ease the punishment that his body was soaking up daily. Injuries had mounted up, forcing him to change (and limit) what he could do in the ring. Most memorably, a serious neck injury had left him temporarily paralysed at SummerSlam 1997. According to Russo, Austin viewed acting as a path he could go down and a way out of full-time pro wrestling. That worried Vince McMahon, who promptly reacted to a late-night phone call from the wrestler in October and called a crisis meeting at Titan Towers with his staff. McMahon was keen to resolve the issue and keep his biggest star on board. The WWF's turnaround in fortunes throughout 1998 had been largely due to his rivalry with Austin, and the thought of losing his box-office smash hit tormented the boss. Things were eventually sorted out, but Austin did do some acting as part of the show 'Nash Bridges'.