Vince McMahon Wanted Steve Austin To Borrow From THIS WCW Wrestler
WWE boss Vince McMahon thought 'Stone Cold' should seek inspiration from WCW's finest.
Vince McMahon was not a fan of Steve Austin's trusty middle finger gesture when 'Stone Cold' started using it regularly on WWF television in the mid-to-late-1990s.
According to Austin himself, Vince believed that something more akin to Diamond Dallas Page's 'Self High Five' hand signal would be better. Basically, as Steve explained to Sportskeeda, the boss wanted him to check out some of WCW's product and see how DDP's gesture appealed to everyone in the audience.
To his credit, 'Stone Cold' stuck to his guns and kept on flipping people off. That did get the federation some heat from executives at the USA Network, but Austin didn't care - he knew that people would rally behind his cause if he was authentic.
He was 100% correct.
It took a while for McMahon to see things Austin's way, and he repeatedly encouraged his future top draw to watch how fans held their hands aloft alongside Page on Nitro. Steve was having none of that sh*t though, and fancied doing things his own way.
Incredibly, Vince wanted 'Stone Cold' to take inspiration from one of WCW's top names.