CraveOnline: Are you happy with the way Wrestlemania 2008 is shaping up, with Ric Flair's retirement match?

Steve Austin: I haven't really watched enough to see what's going on but I don't think so just because Ric Flair is my favorite pro wrestler ever in the history of the business and [that story is not as good as it could be or should be.]

CraveOnline: What does Rick Flair mean to you?

Steve Austin: It's not what he's done for me, it's just the body of work he's compiled. From his start, all the world championships, he was the most legitimate pro wrestler there ever was, greatest champion there ever was. When all the exposes came and pro wrestling was supposed to be fake and it turned into sports entertainment, Ric Flair had the ability to go up there to his opponent and had a strong match with him. Whatever you thought about pro wrestling, you saw Rick Flair, you knew that that was the man in the sport. You had Hogan in the '80s and he was kind of the show biz-y type but Ric Flair was the real deal in the world of entertainment, which everything is these days.

CraveOnline: Will you have a role at Wrestlemania?

Steve Austin: I got a pitch thrown at me I wasn't too keen on, turned it down. I'd like to think that I'll be at Wrestlemania but obviously I'm not going to be there to wrestle. I'd like to go to Hall of Fame and see the big guys coming in, stuff like that. Wrestlemania's always a good time but I think they've got enough full cards. It's not my desire to get back in the ring at this point in my life. I have great memories of everything I did, had a great career, but it's time for those guys and girls to have the spotlight and proceed with their careers. Hopefully I'll have a career somewhat as an actor.

CraveOnline: Your latest DVD is a great collection of career highlights, but what are some favorite moments that are not on the DVD?

Steve Austin: You know, so much stuff is not on the DVD because it's on other DVDs that we've already done. I guess WWE's probably done five or six of me throughout my career in the WWE. We had a new one every year or two years. So we really were able to cover a lot of my career in those DVDs with what you have in Stone Cold Legacies. Some stuff from the ECW, some of the other key promos that I cut in my launching ground, the former platform of ECW and what would become Stone Cold Steve Austin. Just some stuff, some other matches from my WCW days when I was a decent mechanic in the ring but certainly not a star. It kind of really fills in the gap, to me, with all the other DVDs that I've done.

CraveOnline: How were the matches on the DVD chosen? Were you involved?

Steve Austin: Yeah, I had a part in picking some of them out. I always tell people, in the 15 years that I've wrestled, I've got a lot of great memories, but I'll remember more stuff about other guys' careers than myself. I remember when we were doing some of those sit down interviews, being tired being on the road and promoting The Condemned, all of a sudden I had to talk about all these matches. So I'm still pretty much tangled up in being on the road and trying to remember all this stuff, I remember really wanting Jim Ross to be there to help me out with it because talking to Jim Ross, it just seems like memories always flood back. We have a good rapport together so I had a hand in picking out a lot of them.

CraveOnline: Is there anyone you wish you'd had a match against that you never got to fight?

Steve Austin: Well, when I look back at Randy "Macho Man" Savage and Andre the Giant, Jack Brisco and Dusty Rhodes, people like that, oh yeah.

CraveOnline: If the DVD shows you as a more mechanical wrestler, was it important for you to have fans remember that and how it influenced your ultimate persona?

Steve Austin: I think most of those matches, obviously they were television matches or maybe a pay per view match here and there. Most of my really great matches in WCW were house show matches, working 30 minute [matches] with guys like Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, one of my favorite guys to ever be in the ring with. There was definitely a different side to Stone Cold back then. Obviously once I finally got my opportunity in WWE, really learned more of I guess the showbiz part of it and kind of put all the pieces together. Well, I kind of put the pieces together along the way because I just started a very physical and aggressive style catching some attention. Changing to Stone Cold Steve Austin, things just kind of happened for me. I think when I look back, these days when I go [and do an appearance] for WWE, it's [the light part of the fair.] Cut a new promo, grab a few beers together and [give somebody the Stone Cold stare]. That's not what I want to be remembered for. I want to be remembered as that guy who brought all the grey area to a [black and white business of good and bad], who was the bad guy that everybody ended up loving. Transitioning opponents, never saying I was a good guy, turn him into the biggest baby face that's ever been in the business, but a guy that stood for something. Who knows what he stood for other than Stone Cold Steve Austin? He did a lot of things that could be construed as very heel-like but for some reason, maybe as society was going, ended up loving the guy. I want to be remembered as that guy, not the guy that goes out there and just does this lighthearted stuff these days.

CraveOnline: What's going on with your movie career?

Steve Austin: In 2008 I'm scheduled to make a couple of movies, and a couple of other things that we're working on. I don't like to talk too much about that stuff until it's actually going to happen. It's just like when we filmed The Condemned. I didn't believe we were filming The Condemned until I landed in Australia and walked into the production office and saw everything going on. Just waiting for the strike to be over like a lot of other people, I'm ready to start work.

CraveOnline: Did you see the Sharkboy spoof in TNA and what did you think?

Steve Austin: I have not seen it. I've heard about it and it doesn't anger me. I think if the guy's able to make a living doing a Stone Cold Steve Austin impersonation or rip off or spoof or whatever he's doing, whether it's making fun of me or whatever, I could care less. I'm still with the WWE. I don't wrestle anymore but if that guy can make a paycheck acting like Stone Cold Steve Austin, more power to him.

CraveOnline: Is there anything that could draw you back into wrestling?

Steve Austin: If I really needed the money, I'd go back, but thankfully I've always been very, very conservative with my money, don't spend my money. I've invested it wisely. I love the business. I'll always love the business, but I don't miss it anymore. I have fond memories when I think about all that stuff, but I've been at it long enough that life goes on. My life doesn't revolve around professional wrestling anymore.

CraveOnline: Do you have any advice for wrestlers looking for an identity?

Steve Austin: Yeah, I'll tell you what. Don't pretend to be anything. Even when I was Stunning Steve Austin and I wasn't the star, I was comfortable being that guy. There wasn't enough there to really identify me. There kind of was when me and Brian [Pillman] got together to form Hollywood Blondes. When I turned into Stone Cold Steve Austin and kind of just let it all hang out, certainly that's a big part of me but I'm extremely quiet in my normal everyday life. That's just me kind of turned up to a volume 10 but the best I could say is don't pretend to be anything you're not. Some of the guys and girls these days right now, I see them out there trying to be somebody that clearly they're not. They're cutting a promo unfortunately that has been written for them and they don't believe it. They can say it a million times but I can look in their eyes, I can listen to their delivery and I know it's not coming from their gut and their heart. It's not even their brains, so the best thing I can do is go out there and be something. Don't try to be something.

CraveOnline: Hogan had Piper. Who was your biggest rival?

Steve Austin: The complete antagonist was Vince McMahon. Other people were great opponents, but when you talk about the employee vs. the boss, people live vicariously because everybody wants to do the things that I was doing to Vince McMahon and he allowed me to do to him because he's a master showman, master promoter. It just worked out like gangbusters. Hands down, Vince McMahon.

CraveOnline: Did you and Pillman ever come close to having a reunion? You were in WWE at the same time at one point.

Steve Austin: At that time, I was starting to kind of get going on another track there, Stone Cold. I enjoy the solo action. I loved working with Brian Pillman. He's one of my best friends ever, the whole time in the business of pro wrestling. He was on a hot streak as far as that Loose Cannon stuff and just had that terrible car accident and there was a health factor. In pro wrestling, tag teams are great and they're a lot of fun, but if you really want to make big money, you better be a solo act so you're not splitting paychecks. I was really kind of hell bent on being a singles act at that time.

CraveOnline: What do you do to get yourself motivated to go out in front of the crowd?

Steve Austin: It's the funniest thing. That's interesting because I'm from back in the day. If you're backstage or whatever, guys are doing pushups, pumping their muscles up, that can turn into a bodybuilding show, or reapplying their oil. Back in the day, I remember [the OG] Jake The Snake Roberts with his snake bag slung over his shoulder smoking a cigarette. They'd hit his music and he'd just kind of stamp out his cigarette on the floor with his boot, walk out to the ring and that was Jake The Snake Roberts. Stone Cold Steve Austin is just sitting back there with a bottle of water. I'll pour it on my just to make my skin wet because I'm very ashy. If I don't use the water, I'll look like hell on TV or whatever. Don't use oil because it makes you too slippery in the ring, to hold onto your opponent's hands, you couldn't grab a hold of him so I never used oil. Didn't like the way it felt. I didn't have to do anything because when that flash broke, Stone Cold Steve Austin was turned on and I was ready to go. Once you hear that crowd, everything that's going on in the rest of your life, you might be having the worst day ever but as soon as that match breaks, you're Stone Cold Steve Austin and there's a job to do and that's what you go do.