The Greatest Professional Wrestler Is Getting A Reality Series
Stone Cold Steve Austin is going back to reality tv in a new series, Stone Cold Takes on America on A&E.
Any true WWE faithful knows that the holy scripture of Austin 3:16 has some definitive things to say about Stone Cold Steve Austin’s ability to whip your a**. But can he drift race, or throw an axe? The new A&E reality TV series Stone Cold Takes on America aims to find out.
It seems like no task is too big or too small for the former professional wrestler, with the preview showing him taking on an absurdly wide range of challenges. The show will apparently feature Stone Cold Steve Austin flying a helicopter, braving the open sea on a life raft, and handling the most treacherous of situations: taking fast food orders.
A&E has had a fairly close relationship with the WWE in recent years. While it has never aired any of the brand’s pro wrestling shows such as WWE Raw or WWE Smackdown, the channel hosts WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures, WWE Rivals, Biography: WWE Legends, and WWE Smack Talk. Their new show featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin further cements the station’s relationship with the WWE by partnering with one of its biggest stars.
From the mid-90s until his retirement in 2003, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the world’s biggest (and most entertaining) professional wrestling star. Performing alongside such massive stars as Brett Hart, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Mick Foley, Stone Cold stood out by becoming a personification of foul-mouthed rebellion. With storylines that involved feuding with corrupt authority (portrayed by the WWE’s legitimately-scummy CEO Vince MacMahon), he captured the hearts and minds of America’s youth and inspired everyone to flip each other off.
After retiring from wrestling, Stone Cold Steve Austin kept a low profile. While he occasionally dabbled in acting, appearing in The Expendables and Grown Ups 2, he never made it big in Hollywood, unlike other former WWE superstars such as Dwayne Johnson and John Cena.
Besides hosting his podcast The Steve Austin Show and occasionally appearing during WWE special events Stone Cold Steve Austin has been relatively quiet. He hasn’t appeared in a non-wrestling-related show or movie since 2015 when he starred in the direct-to-video action thriller Chain of Command — a film so obscure that it only has a Wikipedia article in German.
If the preview of Stone Cold Takes on America is anything to go by, however, it seems like Stone Cold Steve Austin is ready to reprise his role as a profane antihero outside of the ring. By repeating his simple, age-old catchphrase “Hell Yeah!” he shows a willingness to play into the much-beloved persona that made him such an icon almost three decades ago.
It’s unknown whether audiences are interested in watching a retired professional wrestler take on tasks that don’t involve clotheslining opponents or jumping off a turnbuckle. However, if his iconic character successfully adapts to the reality TV genre, A&E might just have a hit on their hands.
Fans of Stone Cold Steve Austin can catch the first episode of Stone Cold Takes on America on April 20, 2023. And that’s the bottom line, ’cause Stone Cold said so.
