Jim Ross on Steve Austin holding a grudge against WWE legend

Stone Cold Steve Austin was one of WWE's marquee attractions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jim Ross, a WWE commentator and talent relations executive in those days, recently addressed The Texas Rattlesnake's animosity with Owen Hart.

In 1997, Austin suffered a career-threatening neck injury after receiving a botched Piledriver from Hart at SummerSlam. It is common courtesy for wrestlers to keep in touch with an opponent after accidentally hurting them. However, Austin thought his former in-ring rival failed to take responsibility for causing the injury.

On his Grilling JR podcast, Ross said Austin would have been unwilling to feud with Hart again if the two were booked to face each other one-on-one in 1998:

​

"I don't think Steve was extremely pleased with that opportunity. I think he held a grudge against Owen because Owen was careless on that Piledriver and Austin paid the price for that for the rest of his career. I'm not sure Austin would have ever wanted at that time [to work with Owen Hart]. Maybe later on it would have been a different ballgame, but at that time Owen was not welcome into the Austin world." [1:18:48 – 1:19:17]

In 1999, Hart passed away aged 34 after a botched aerial stunt at WWE's Over the Edge event caused him to fall 80 feet.

Steve Austin was happy to work with another WWE legend

At WrestleMania 14, Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels in the main event to win the WWE Championship for the first time. Mick Foley, then known as Dude Love, joined forces with Vince McMahon to feud with Austin after the event.

According to Jim Ross, the WWE icon had no problem sharing the ring with Foley despite their contrasting wrestling styles:

​

"Vince was very pleased that we got Foley. Foley was there, very happy to do it, and Austin was happy with the selection of Mick Foley because Mick was a safe worker. Ironically, people are like, 'Well, he's crazy, he's jumping off cages, cells,' and all that stuff, but in the ring he changed his style up and it worked out beautifully. He was the perfect choice for what we wanted to do." [1:18:00 – 1:18:28]

Steve Austin retained the WWE Championship twice against Dude Love before his 91-day title reign ended against Kane at King of the Ring 1998.

Please credit Grilling JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.

​