Steve Austin didn’t want to be told how boring he was.

Chris Jericho had an explosive start to life in August 1999, but that start didn’t make him particularly popular. After interrupting The Rock in a forgettable debut, Jericho repeated the trick on the following episode of SmackDown against The Undertaker.

Jericho took the Deadman to task and said he was boring. That didn’t go over well backstage. But that wasn’t the original statement.

In a recent episode of his podcast “Talk Is Jericho,” Jericho revealed that he originally planned to film his promo appearance with Austin, but the star had other plans.

I did a promo for Undertaker on Tuesday. It was originally going to be a promo for Austin, but I think Steve said, “Screw it. I’m not doing it.” My idea at the time was that I would just bury all the top stars and tell them how boring they are. I told Undertaker how boring he is after he had just done a ten-minute, super boring promo. I got so much criticism for that.

Steve Austin confirms WWE talks

Meanwhile, Steve Austin has confirmed that he was incredibly close to performing at WrestleMania 40. In a recent interview, Austin confirmed that WWE had been in touch and there were “conversations,” but that he and his wife had “a few things going on” that did not include a stop in Philadelphia.

It was previously reported that WWE wanted to give Austin a cameo appearance in the match between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, in the place eventually taken by The Undertaker.

H/t to Fightful