WWE Byte This - Full Steve Austin interview 31 May 2002

This is the full infamous Steve Austin interview from Byte This in 2002 where he openly badmouths wwe and his creative direction. I found the footage on an old tape from my tape trading days that i can't see has been uploaded anywhere else before, hence the poor video quality.
I also found the following week's Byte This interview with Vince McMahon, another seemingly lost full interview.

[@Rschr101]

Moment in time. Things were changing fast in 2002. Austin leaving soon after this interview was a big turning point. Wrestling was never the same after he left. Steve is still the biggest star in the business to this day.

[@bmstyty3549]

I think at this time wwe was moving on from Austin as their top star as they put him in a forgettable match & feud with Scott hall at mania that was overshadow by rock & hogan. Had him lose to taker at backlash & then wanted him to job to lesnar a rookie who had only been on the main roster for 3 months on a random episode of raw for the kotr they wanted lesnar to beat their biggest babyface & draw in the company. Stone cold had every right to walk out.

[@Leo-yn5fx]

@@bmstyty3549Shawn and Austin were one of a kind. The company doing their top guys dirty was disgusting. Taker was always an ass kisser

[@Rschr101]

Thank you for the upload. Been looking for this forever. Like 20 years. Cheers

[@thebuddyboots]

Thanks so much for uploading this and the Vince interview. Legit hidden gems. You Rule!

[@Imhim336.]

Back when KayFabe was still ALIVE man I miss it #BringKayFabeBack

[@chrisxavier3147]

First time seeing this, thank you There is so much lost media that no one thought of recording/sharing at the time EDIT: I grew up in Cambridge!

[@SkronkJappleson]

Thanks man

[@tylercox1875]

i wish there was more of these

[@timotundy]

I remember reading about this interview. I can’t believe I haven’t t seen it until now

[@brandonsnyder1726]

Dope finds my friend

[@kamfisher1714]

If people actually think that the reason why Austin left was due to not wanting to lose to Lesnar at the KOTR then they simply are delusional. Austin knew his body was breaking down and he couldn’t do what he wanted to do, mix that with the personal issues and his drinking, he was a ticking time bomb by 2002.

[@bb-gc2tx]

hogan coming back and outshining him and the fact he was not nearly as over as he once was

[@louio]

HHH had gain heavy backstage power, became an executive and writer as well.

[@kamfisher1714]

@@louio Yea so much so that HHH put over hogan after winning the main event of wrestlemania. Austin wouldn’t have done that, plain and simple.

[@Leo-yn5fx]

@@kamfisher1714Lmao Triple H was a fixture in the company and he was never a top guy. For what? Might as well put em over

[@kamfisher1714]

@@Leo-yn5fx Triple h was more over than the rock and austin in 2002

[@SFGUNNER]

Ive been watching Randy Orton videos during his stint w/ Evolution. His work then and now is stellar

[@loyalROCKfan]

They straight up tried to burry, Steve on RAW in a squash match oh sorry, " enhancement match" against Brock for this whole shoot. They really took a dump all over him. Everything he said in this interview was facts. Just goes to show that even till this day and forever. The wrestling business at times has more politics than the White House. Steve was right to leave. I would have.

[@danlutzka8007]

I was om this one asked a question lol

[@Badmothafucka1222]

First time listening to the full interview & this was nowhere near as bad as people made it seem imo

[@mike_mcgb]

WWE snipped the part that served them for Confidential

[@NeptunexWWE]

Kevin Kelly is a different animal in Byte this

[@BaseballPlayer0]

we never got scsa vs brock

[@memohdfromwwe_]

Not a fun time to be a WWE fan at this time, transition periods are never fun.

[@bmstyty3549]

I think at this time wwe was moving on from Austin as their top star as they put him in a forgettable match & feud with Scott hall at mania that was overshadow by rock & hogan. Had him lose to taker at backlash & then wanted him to job to lesnar a rookie who had only been on the main roster for 3 months on a random episode of raw for the kotr they wanted lesnar to beat their biggest babyface & draw in the company. Stone cold had every right to walk out. 2002 wwe was building the company solely around lesnar.

[@jordanbailey5456]

They didn't want lesnar to beat the top draw on raw he beat n ppv at summerslam

[@bmstyty3549]

@@jordanbailey5456 they booked lesnar to beat stone cold on raw THATS why stone cold walked out.

[@jordanbailey5456]

@@bmstyty3549 You didn't realize I was talking about the rock

[@bmstyty3549]

@@jordanbailey5456 oh yeah him too they wanted lesnar to run through all the legends & top draws in the company like when they had him beat the shit out of hogan on smackdown

[@AlexThorn]

Steve was threatened by Hogan hall and Nash coming in. He wasn't in the best shape and could tell the company was starting to move past him. He couldn't handle it so like many documented times, he bitched and moaned. The night he walked off,flair did the job to Lesnar on raw and then Hogan did the job to Lesnar on smackdown on the way to SummerSlam with like a 2 week build. but by no means could Austin do it.

[@Leo-yn5fx]

Old timers austin wasnt dying at all

[@Redhotshawntexas]

As Hogan himself said, he only did the job for Lesnar because in his mind, he was going to get the Undisputed title off of him when he came back from the worked injury 😂😂😂😂😂

[@mrcool1519]

Austin's idea of "good writing" was single handedly taking down the entire alliance on RAW as the marks in the crowd stroked his ego despite many MID CARD guys and literal jobbers looking like they can easily kill Austin in a real fight...wahhh waaah waaah is all this crybaby did. Go back and watch RAW during the precious attitude era... the entire thing quickly becomes a parody of itself and resembles what youd see in some lame sitcom... Attitude era crybaby's got a good 5 or 6 years of precious Baldstin and the Crock cutting the same promos every week and still demanded more. It's no wonder why they hated what came afterwards during the 2000's which resembled a show more for adults rather than children. WWE in the 2000's was basically a hard hitting emmy award winning drama as opposed to the attitude era which was average sitcom 90's slop. Where's Debra? Anybody seen Debra?

[@i_used_adblock_to_watch_this]

How, or better yet, why was this recorded on VHS? ByteThis was an online only webcast. The lengths someone would have to go through to record this to VHS is insane.

[@smugmode84]

I got it from a tape trader at the time, I’m sure it was a special request as I knew they had a decent capture card which was pretty rare in 2002. I must have figured these two interviews were worth keeping hold of

[@SFSVHS]

It was 2002, 22 years ago, to be fair. Using VHS to watch and record media was still fairly common. Keep in mind that he acquired it through a tape trader and copying tapes to tapes often leads to “generation loss.” Plus, it’s possible that the footage may have been through some older model VCRs that had been in use for a long time prior. I understand where you’re coming from, though. The good thing is that it was archived in the first place, because it’s quite unlikely WWE would put _Byte This!_ up on streaming.

[@thunderballs6216]

​@smugmode84 well thank you my friend. We appreciate you for sharing this

[@RonMarek]

Back in 2002, it was possible to buy a video capture card at Best Buy or Circuit City. It was also possible to burn to DVD or SVCD, but someone along the way decided to copy to VHS.

[@memohdfromwwe_]

This was the only medium available at the time to PC users, probably recorded through a video card with RCA / S-Input to a VCR end.