Kevin Owens Recounts Surprising First Meeting with Steve Austin

Kevin Owens recently reflected on his first encounter with Steve Austin and the profound impact "The Texas Rattlesnake" had on his career.

Before signing with WWE, Owens was making waves on the independent circuit alongside Sami Zayn. One day, while traveling and waiting for their next flight, they found themselves in the same airport as Austin. Recounting their meeting on an A & E Biography special on the Hall of Famer, Owens shared how he broke the news to Zayn, who initially misunderstood the situation:

Owens: “We were in the middle of one of those travel days and we were about to board our third flight and we were really dead tired. I just remember walking toward the water fountain, I looked to my left and my first thought was that guy looks like Steve Austin. Oh, that is Steve Austin.”

Zayn: “I am on the ground sleeping and I am so out of it. I get woken up in a panic by Kevin. He goes ‘Dude, come on, we gotta go, right now!’ I’m so in a haze that for some reason I’m under the understanding that he has got into some kind of altercation and now he needs me for backup. We are about to go have a fistfight.”

Owens: “As we are walking towards Austin he [Zayn] goes ‘Who are we fighting?’ I’m like what? He thought I was asking him to come fight some guys. Which to his credit he was coming, he was like ok, we are going to fight guys at an airport. That’s a good plan. But then I am like we are going to see “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Sami looks up and sees him and he says ‘That’s not Austin, oh sh*t it is!'”

Austin: “I remember Kevin Owens came up to me, Sami Zayn was there as well. Kevin started running off the mouth, nice to meet me, he’d been a longtime fan of mine.”

Owens continued by recalling how he asked Austin for a piece of advice to help him in his wrestling career. The former Universal Champion later admitted that what Austin told him is something that still resonates with him to this day:

Owens: “We told him we were independent wrestlers, then he started talking to us about wrestling, what we were doing, how things are going. We probably ended up talking to him for a good 10 minutes. Then it was time to board, they called first class which obviously he was on and we weren’t. Right before we went I was like ‘Hey, if you have one piece of advice for me, what is it?'”

Austin: “I said kid, you need to learn how to run your mouth, need to learn how to talk.”

Owens: “I took that advice to heart. It’s an understatement when I say that advice helped me get where I am today, for sure.”