Court Bauer Recalls Vince McMahon Pitching Steve Austin To Lose To Jonathan Coachman

Court Bauer speaks on the rumored Steve Austin return match from 2005.

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin was considered retired after his WrestleMania 19 match against The Rock. However, there were attempts to bring him back to the ring at times.

Speaking with Jeremy Lambert and SP3 on In The Weeds, Court Bauer was asked if he had considered doing a show called The Laughterhouse before this year’s MLW Slaughterhouse. Bauer says no, and then shares the story about WWE pitching Steve Austin to lose to Jonathan Coachman.

“I’ve been in some writer rooms in wrestling where you were like, ‘Is this going to be a show called The Laughterhouse cause it’s getting really funky and weird.’ I think there was a Cyber Sunday (it was actually Taboo Tuesday) that got so funky and weird that you really thought it was a laughing house kind of deal where someone was supposed to go to Steve Austin and tell him he was going to lose to Jonathan Coachman in a two-on-one handicap match. That was pretty interesting. 

I’m sure the writers caught some heat for that. But that was an idea from the chairman at the time, Vince McMahon. I’m like, ‘Well, that’s a pretty ballsy move. This guy’s one of the biggest stars in history and I know you think a lot of Coachman in his heat, and so did Kevin at the time, but it’s like, ‘Really?’ Of course, I think Steve may have hurt his back moving that week and couldn’t come to the show in San Diego unfortunately. That was also I think a match that ended up with Goldust, Vader, and Jonathan Coachman in it. Somehow, I think in the middle of the match, Vader got vertigo. You watch him, he’s like breaks gravity, like flips and twirls like a fish out of water and falls. This poor Dustin Rhodes is looking like, ‘What am I going to do with this live TV, man? You never know what’s going to happen.’ I was like, ‘I guess this Steve had some good instincts here. This could have been Steve.’ He dodged a bullet that day, but you look back and you laugh at it. Some of these ideas, man, they’re not all good.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bauer updated fans on Bishop Dyer’s contract negotiations. Fans can read his comments here.