“Stone Cold” Steve Austin celebrated his 57th birthday over the weekend, and one of his good friends had a message for him. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson went to Instagram to post a message to Austin. He also shared videos of Austin celebrating his birthday by drinking two beers and the two battling in WWE over the years.
“Happy Birthday to my all time greatest rivalry and friend from our wild and ground breaking days in the business that’ll forever be in our blood — pro wrestling,” Johnson wrote. It’s hard to explain how much HELL we raised together, in arenas and stadiums all around the world. We split each other open and bled a lot. It’s what we did. Blood, Sweat, Respect, Rock Bottoms, Stunners, Beer, More beer, Fun, More fun, And big middle fingers. EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. FOR. YEARS.”
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“And as much fun as we had, the [WWE] crowds ENJOYED IT EVEN MORE. Happy Birthday, my brother. And thank you “for the house” all those years and for a partnership that led to the biggest box office draw in pro wrestling history.” Austin and Johnson were the faces of WWE in the late 1990s, which was also known as The Attitude Era for the company. As Johnson was on the rise in WWE, Austin has established himself as the top man in the business. Austin and Johnson would battle each other at WrestleMania three different times with Austin winning two of the matches. In the third meeting, which was WrestleMania XIX in 2003, Johnson defeated Austin in what would be his final match with the company.
“He knew that I didn’t want to go, and this was a hard decision for me to make,” the Austin said of Johnson in his Biography on A&E. “I remember just laying there in front of 70,000, man, and I said, ‘Man, I love you too.’ I told him I loved him. Verbatim, I said, ‘I love you, too.’ Two big-ass, tough-ass guys telling each other that they love the other one in front of millions of people.”
Johnson would leave WWE shortly after Johnson to pursue a movie career. Johnson is now of the top stars in Hollywood while Austin is a top TV personality.
