I discovered while writing my two unauthorized wrestling biographies that I actually liked having the wrestler known as Chyna living in my head. But Steve Austin … not so much.
Joanie Laurer’s life was the tale of a women who was mocked for being different as a girl and later laughed at for trying to make it in a man’s sport, but who wouldn’t take no for an answer and eventually broke through the canvas ceiling.
Steve Austin’s public persona, on the other hand, was that of the guy who would pop a brewski and then tell his boss to take this job and shove it. Anyone who knows me knows … I’m not that guy.
So while it was an amazing challenge to write Texas Rattlesnake, assembling the public facts of Steve Austin’s life into a coherent story, Chyna was the one I liked.