Like many other major entertainment organizations, the WWE has been forced to make some changes in recent weeks. Unlike other organizations, however, the company is still broadcasting episodes live to its television audience while opting to leave the audience at home. The resulting product has been quite different from what fans are used to seeing, but somehow Stone Cold Steve Austin still managed to raise a sufficient amount of hell on Monday Night Raw.
The WWE had its living legend on in order to celebrate 3/16 day, an unofficial holiday dedicated to Stone Cold Steve Austin. The wrestling organization probably had an original plan of having Austin deliver a biting promo to an over-hyped audience screaming "What?!," but was forced to improvise in wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The result may be one of the most bizarre segments Stone Cold has done in his history with the WWE, but still worthy of a hearty "Hell yeah!"
There is just too much going on in this clip to get in one go. For example, Stone Cold Steve Austin just keeps randomly hocking loogies and spitting in the WWE Performance Center. It's the kind of thing one notices during a quarantine, but I'm sure the WWE Legend was properly screened and won't expose any of the current WWE roster to coronavirus or any illness ahead of WrestleMania.
Then there's the stunner on WWE commentator Byron Saxton, which he took like an absolute champ. Especially considering, if you go back to 3:10 in the video, you can hear Stone Cold Steve Austin's foot connect with Saxton's groin. Maybe when there's no crowd noise to get in the way, talent has to do a little more selling of the action than they normally would? I doubt Austin intentionally meant to injure Saxton in any way, but sometimes actual hits are just a reality of working in WWE.
Much like his buddy Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin is known for his electrifying charisma. It turns out that that's just as entertaining to watch when there aren't thousands of people in a stadium to cheer and goad him, even if it's in a different way. This whole segment felt like watching an episode of The Eric Andre Show, and I mean that in the best way possible.
Stone Cold's bizarre but entertaining bit on Monday Night Raw may be what WWE fans can expect going forward, as all of its events for the forseeable future will be held without an audience. This includes WrestleMania 36, which was originally scheduled to take place in Tampa Bay, Florida. While it will be quite a shock to see a lower budget version of WrestleMania, this bit with Steve Austin has me intrigued to see what WWE has in store for the big event.
Monday Night Raw airs on USA Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for updates on what's new on television and for more updates on how coronavirus is affecting productions around Hollywood.
