‘Stone Cold Takes on America’ and shows his true colors on A&E
As a professional wrestler for more than two decades, Stone Cold Steve Austin gave all he had to the sport and in the process missed out on a lot of life experiences. Now, he tries to make up for lost time in an unscripted series coming to A&E Network.
In “Stone Cold Takes on America,” premiering Sunday, April 30, the man born Steven James Anderson invites viewers along as he hits the road in an RV across the U.S. Southwest to drop in on fans who communicate with him via social media and to take on challenges from fans that take him out of his comfort zone.
So in the 10 hourlong episodes, he’ll try his hand at everything from drift racing, man tracking and sheep herding to less hazardous activities such as running a fastfood drive-through and doing the weather on a morning news show.
And through these experiences, viewers will get a glimpse at the man behind the persona.
“If you know Stone Cold, if you grew up watching him, you’re going to see that this guy is not a grizzly bear, he’s a teddy bear. He’s just a nice guy,” says executive producer and showrunner Mike Nichols. “And that to me was the most unexpected thing.”
“And I didn’t realize he puts people at ease; he’s just so comfortable to be around and that was shocking to everybody. And even to his fans because he’s just a nice guy. He’ll talk to fans all day long and he just loves talking to people. And I don’t think you’re going to see that coming.”
But make no mistake, Nichols adds, Stone Cold is still in there. And that comes through in Sunday’s opener, when he goes to Sand Mountain in Nevada to try drift racing, a loud, intimidating sport that clearly had him wondering if he can pull it off. But the fierce competitor in him forged ahead.
“That’s where courage is,” Nichols says, “you can’t go around it, you’ve got to go through it. And he shows that courage where, ‘I don’t want to do this (but) I’m committed, I’m going.’ ... He does it because that’s Steve and he committed to it and he’s not going to back down.”