A former WWE writer has revealed another name that was pitched to be the man behind running Stone Cold Steve Austin at the 1999 Survivor Series.

There’s nothing like wrestling whodunnit, and one of the most famous WWE mysteries came in 1999 when Stone Cold Steve Austin was famously runover by an automobile at that year’s Survivor Series.  

The stunt was a storyline excuse to remove Austin from his scheduled WWE Championship match against The Rock and Triple H, that he had to withdrawal from due to an injury.

It set in motion an investigation led by Commissioner Mick Foley to find out who had been behind the wheel of the vehicle, with several names put forward as possible suspects. In the end it was revealed to be Rikishi who run the Rattlesnake down, claiming he ‘did it for the Rock’ when later it was revealed to all be a Triple H masterplan. 

Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz spoke about the classic angle and how there were a number of different names put forward, revealing one famous name in particular. 

Let’s see. How do I put this? The amount of people who were gonna freakin’ run over Stone Cold Steve Austin at some point, you know, you could fill a jury with them and have alternates. There were a lot of people and it kept switching. It was kind of like a hot potato.”“I remember at one point Vince looked at me and was like, ‘Taz.’ At one point, it was gonna be Taz. Okay, great. Let’s make it Taz. Then, you know, for whatever reason, the next week, it’s someone different.

Gewirtz when onto explain the decision to go with Rikishi in the end didn’t quite work out how they’d planned. 

"I wouldn’t call that necessarily a success. Rikishi is a Hall of Fame performer, but he’s likable and a natural babyface, and people want to like him. Sometimes you just don’t know until you try. Then ultimately, it was Rikishi, but Triple H was behind it all along, and you know, it went back to the natural order of things.”

Stone Cold Steve Austin was back in WWE action earlier this year, when he defeated Kevin Owens in the main event of WrestleMania 38. It was the 57-year old’s first match back since for 19 years, since his battle with The Rock at WrestleMania XIX. 

Thanks to WrestlingNews.co