My problems with WWE had been building for a while, going back to Wrestlemania X-7 when I wanted to change the direction of my character. I felt a little stale, and I wanted to switch things up. Maybe it wasnt the greatest I dead in the world, but I always think back to that night at Wrestlemania when I was waling The Rock with a chair. I shouldn't have just flipped flat-out and erased the mystique of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Hell, Stone Cold is unpredictable, because you never know what he's going to do next. I should have jsut put the edge back where it needed to be. Instead, it became predictable. then Rocky was gone, everybody was gone. I didnt have alot of people to work programs with, and the fans didn't really know how to take me. The creative [Direction] got real wishy-washy after that, and I wasn't happy with the direction anything was going in.
When I took off for a couple of weeks after Wrestlemania X8, I heard and read alot of people saying that it was because I was pissed off about the nWo coming in because of my match at Mania with Scott Hall. I really didn't have a problem with the nWo. Me and Kevin Nash used to be riding partners. He's a dam good friend of mine. When Hall and Nash were in WCW they stirred up alot of crap. The only one that I heard was a pile of trash was [Hollywood Hulk] Hogan, because he's a manipulator and does backstage politics; he's that to this day. I just didn't think it was going to work out gangbusters like it was planned to be.
I knew going into the match with Scott Hall that I was going to go off the next day. I was fucking fried. I was burned out and frustrated. They had me in a third or forth main event. It wasn't even a main event; it was just some match the card. And I wasn't happy with that at all. You can tell me the buisness goes in cycles, and sometimes your not as hot as you want to be, but where I was on the card didn't make sense to me. The match wasn't promoted proberly. It wasn't built properly. Nothing. people said I had personaly problems with Scott Hall, or he had problems with me. I didn't. I liked the guy. He's got personal problems; that stuff he's got to deal with. As far as getting into the ring with Scott, I enjoyed it. But you can't expect the guy to come in here and in three months be in a Wrestlemania match. So I wanted to wrestle with somebody different. I got no animosity toward Scott Hall. He's as good as gold with me.
When I went home the day after Wrestlemania X8, I was going to get my head together, man. The way things where going, I needed to step back and say, "Man, let me take a breath of fresh air." becuase when The Rock was off making his movie and Triple H was down with an injury, I was working over time. When they get me hot and rolling, I'm out doing every single thing they got. I worked my ass off, just like everybody else on the crew. It's part of being a top guy. I worked every damned show there is. I was burned out physically. Damn it, I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I can go with the best of them, but I was burned-out. Thats the bottom line. I knew I was going to come back, I just needed some time off, and I didn't need to talk about it or negotiate it with anybody or anything like that. I wanted to go home and I did.
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