Stone Cold Steve Austin Discusses Fan Reaction To Backlash Main Event

Steve Austin says Reigns and Samoa Joe remind him of his matches with Undertaker. 

On Sunday, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe closed out the Backlash pay-per-view in the main event. During the match, the crowd was noticeably disinterested and there were reports of fans leaving during the match. On his podcast, Steve Austin explained how two wrestlers could end up in front of an unengaged crowd. 

"When you're talking about this match earlier on in the day and you're setting it up, you figure 'ok, this is a good plan and we'll stick to it.' Then all of a sudden, the people aren't quite as involved or engaged as you would want them to be," said Austin. 

The situation reminded Austin of him and Undertaker where he considered them both to be "badasses" but he did not consider himself a "sympathetic baby face." He said when he wrestled Undertaker, it was a little harder to get a crowd behind him. 

Austin was then asked by his co-host if wrestlers should change a match depending on the crowd during the night and placement on a card. 

"Normally on a pay-per-view because that's such a big event, you don't really have time for that and you figure what you got is going to work," said Austin.

Before the match, Samoa Joe attacked Reigns but the match was allowed to be started. Austin said that contributed to a pacing problem the match had. He also said "there's always a case to go short" when the crowd is captivated but he was unsure if Samoa Joe and Reigns ever had the crowd's attention.  

The full episode of The Steve Austin Show is available at PodcastOne.com.