Steve Austin: You Have To Work Hard To Earn The Respect Of The MSG Crowd

Steve Austin talks return to MSG.

For the first time since 2011, WWE will return to Madison Square Garden for television on Sept. 9 and 10 for Raw and SmackDown. Monday’s Raw is already shaping up to be a big event with the Four Horsewomen colliding in tag team action and Steve Austin set to host the Universal Title contract signing between Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins. Ahead of the event, Austin chatted with Sports Illustrated about his MSG return.

“That crowd is a tough crowd, and if you win them over, you’ve really done something,” said Austin. “It’s a crowd that you’ve got to work really hard for to earn their respect, and I love that about that building. Vince would always show up at the Garden, even for the house shows. And when the old man rolled into the building, we made sure we worked our asses off even more than we already were because Vince was watching.”

Austin continued, “I remember when the business got so hot back in the day that when you would drive your rental car into the Garden, the fans would line up and wait for you on the way out. Depending on how over you were as a babyface or how much heat you had as a heel, they would tear off your side view mirrors and rip off your antennas. People tearing up your automobile was almost like your reward for being over or having heat. We didn’t like it, but that was how it was. And eventually it started meaning something to us.”

Austin went on to say that he would have to sneak out of the arena in an ambulance in order to avoid the raucous crowd.

Fightful will have live coverage of WWE Raw beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Monday.