WWE Update: ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin Snubs Wrestlemania 31 Due To Conflict With Vince McMahon

Former World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, superstar “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was supposed to be one of the surprise appearances for the company’s annual end of the season extravaganza. Everything was set, he had his own locker room but the man who made gurgling cans of beers in fight was a no-show.

Wrestling insiders are leaking out that the absence was largely due to a budding rift with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon over a podcast session with Triple H last February. Triple H and the "Texas Rattlesnake" touched up on several WWE topics, some of which bordered on the controversial including the exclusion of Triple H’s former flame Chyna from the prestigious Hall of Fame. Triple H stated that Chyna’s involvement in the adult entertainment business is the major stumbling block in her entry in the list, a revelation that stirred ripples in the wrestling world.

Now, that exchange is coming back to cause more damage as McMahon and Austin appear to be at odds over the no-holds barred line of questioning the 50-year-old poster boy of the “Attitude Era.” While nobody at WWE has officially confirmed the rift, the absence of Austin at Wrestlemania 31 at Levi’s Stadium all the more increases the murmurs.

“Vince was apparently not happy with some of Austin’s questions for Triple H and while we don’t have specifics yet, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter speculates that it could be Austin asking Triple H about Chyna going into the WWE Hall of Fame one day,” Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc. wrote in his latest piece.

The situation gets worse as the company recently made a shook up in its WWE Network by replacing Austin with Chris Jericho to do the “company-sanctioned” podcasts. The new arrangement will have its baptism of fire on Monday when Jericho interview John Cena for its first broadcast.

Austin’s camp has been silent throughout the controversy and the Austin, Texas native dished his usual review of the wrestling year in his “Podcast One” show. He dished on some thoughts on Wrestlemania 31 saying that his personal preference is not to watch the matches in broad daylight given that he is having a hard time distinguishing the crowd from the talents but nevertheless thinks that the next year’s edition will achieve its goal of filling up a 100,000-seating capacity stadium.

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