10 Most Shocking Stone Cold Steve Austin Controversies

2. Stone Cold Takes His Ball, Goes Home

In 2002, Steve Austin was winding down his career, and Brock Lesnar was someone WWE was getting behind in a big way. The story goes that Vince McMahon wanted Brock Lesnar to face Austin on Raw and absolutely decimate him, similar to Lesnar's match twelve years later against John Cena. Austin baulked at the idea, and when a compromise couldn't be reached, he headed home to San Antonio. Both Lesnar and Austin have given their opinions on this, with Lesnar calling Austin a coward for not wanting to lose the match, and Austin claiming it made no sense to do a big money match like Lesnar/Austin on an episode of Raw with almost no build behind it. While Austin's argument does make sense from a financial point of view, Lesnar completely trucking Austin would be a Raw moment that lived forever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHaGqxQJ5f4 In the years following this, Austin has owned up to his leaving being a mistake, and he wishes he would have sat down with Vince and explained his position more clearly. Lesnar has gone on record saying he still wants to wrestle Austin, with Stone Cold being his #1 dream opponent. Interestingly, in a recent episode of Austin's podcast, Paul Heyman closed the show by trying to talk Austin into the match at WrestleMania 32.