Steve Austin Sounds Off On Brie Bella Injuring Liv Morgan: "Sh-t Happens"
Recently on The Steve Austin Show, WWE Hall Of Famer Steve Austin shared his thoughts on Brie Bella inadvertently knocking out Liv Morgan on the September 24, 2018 edition of WWE Monday Night RAW. Specifically, Austin indicated that while Bella was at fault for the errant 'yes kicks' and picking up Morgan after the incident, Bella was not being malicious. Also, Austin put over Morgan for wanting to finish the match and did not fault Morgan's Riott Squad stablemates for allowing Morgan to reenter the match for the triple suplex spot.
According to Austin, professional wrestlers must protect themselves in the squared circle. Although many precautions are taken, accidents happen.
"We're going to go out there and work with each other, but every now and then, somebody is going to be off and one of us is going to get hurt. Well, you're not trying to do it – that's just how it is." Austin continued, "you go out there and you try to work a match and sometimes just things go wrong. When you have two or more athletes out there, going at a high rate of speed or just do the stuff and make it look good, s–t happens. End of story."
In Austin's view, while there was no ill intent on Bella's part, the misplaced kicks were her fault nonetheless.
"When you look at that, watching those kicks, Liv was down on the mat, Brie started the kicks. She was laying them in square on the chest, square on the chest. Then, she tried to speed up the cadence. When she sped up the cadence, it took Liv a little bit out of her motion, so, all-of-a-sudden, bam, bam, maybe three times, there was a knockout. [Morgan] goes down. Okay, now those are potatoes. That's on Brie because she threw the kicks and she kind of sped up the cadence when she took Liv out of timing, and she caught her a couple of times [in the head]. Brie's not a malicious person! Brie didn't try to do that! It happened. Okay, so then it happened and that's on Brie." Austin added, "but again, I've hurt people in the ring, people've hurt me in the ring, and that's just the way it goes, so it wasn't a malicious act."
Moreover, Austin claimed that Bella should never have tried to move Morgan after the incident and the official should have stopped the contest immediately or otherwise stepped in.
"The part when she goes to pick [Morgan] up, when she goes to pick Liv up, that was a little bit of a panic there because they're trying to get through the match. They've got time cues to hit and Liv goes down. From watching, from being a spectator, I could tell that Liv is out. Brie tries to pick her up and rolls her over and then she picks her up and starts carrying her back towards the corner, that's on Brie. When you injure somebody, just like in any football accident or anything like that or something, if someone gets knocked out or it's a neck [injury], you just don't touch that person. She should've stood up. The referee should've stopped the match right there or got in there or got in [there]. What do they do? They grab the wrist, throw up the 'X' [gesture] or whatever. It's not the referee's fault, but yeah the referee should've stepped in because he should have seen that something was wrong." Austin said, "so Brie makes the mistake of trying to pick her up and continue on with the match."
Austin had a lot of praise for Morgan for wanting to finish the match. The 'G.I.A.N.T.' of professional wrestling went on to say that Morgan's Riott Squad teammates cannot be blamed for keeping 'The Juvenile Delinquent' of the group out of the ring for the suplex spot.
"When Liv comes in and gets back involved, in my opinion, that's not on Ruby [Riott] or Sarah [Logan] to keep her down." Austin explained, "now, if it was a person like Vince McMahon or me or whatever and said specifically, or Triple H, 'stay out – you're done,' she probably would've listened. I've got to give credit to Liv for coming back in the match. On one end, that's the worst thing you could do, but as a person who has been dropped on the head like I have or like when Triple H blew out his quad and tried to finish the match, it was a tag match we were in a long time ago, that's the mentality of the boys. And when I say 'boys,' I mean the women too. That's just what we call them. That's just the mentality of being a professional wrestler trying to finish the match. That's what we do, so credit to Liv for having the gumption to want to come back, and finish, and do her part. And whether Sarah or Ruby said, 'hey, stay down,' I can't put the blame on them They're not exactly seasoned veterans of many, many years inside the squared circle where they're going to be authority figures to Liv and command her to stay out. They're trying to finish the match. So Brie potatoed her and Brie picked her up. When you injure somebody, don't pick them up. Let them go. But when Liv wants to come in, man, she's a gamer. I give her credit for trying to come back. Sometimes, that's the worst thing you can do, but I give her credit for being tough."
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Source: The Steve Austin Show