Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock and Steve Austin had a long rivalry that lasted over four years during the Attitude Era and we could watch them fight in three epic WrestleMania matches. They fought in the ring, in the backstage, for titles, but there was one stunt that almost killed Austin.
Back in 1999, there was a famous Raw segment in which Steve Austin drove a massive Monster Truck with his signature 3:16 in order to crash Johnson’s new Lincoln. The fans loved this bit, and they especially loved The Rock’s reaction.
However, just several moments before Austin performed the stunt he had almost been killed. Namely, when they were on a commercial break, Austin was locked inside his truck backstage, but there was something wrong with the engine, and it filled the cabin with exhaust flames.
In the recent episode of his podcast, The Steve Austin Show, he said: “It was about a three-minute commercial break, so the whole time the people back home are watching commercials I’m in a room, inside a truck, breathing methanol/alcohol fumes — I could barely breathe.”
He added: “I was just begging for the show to come back on air so I could charge out in the audience and get a breath of fresh air. I’m breathing all those exhaust fumes, I was going to crash that gate doing 98 [miles per hour] and go and take my own cue and haul into the arena if they hadn’t have cued me when they did — I was about to die.”
Luckily, everything ended well for Austin, and he has become a living legend. Here, you can watch the stunt and Austin driving the Monster truck inside the arena, where Dwayne Johnson is waiting.
