One of the most memorable holiday moments on RAW is when “Stone Cold” Steve Austin hit a mean Santa Claus with a Stunner. Bruce Prichard recently discussed the moment on his Something To Wrestle podcast and had plenty of new information to reveal about the scene including who Santa was, and a surprise appearance of a future WWE superstar.
Transcription by WrestleZone.com Senior Editor Tyler Treese.
On Stone Cold Stunning Santa Claus:
The funny part about it is that Steve actually stunned Santa Claus. I remember when we had Roddy Piper attack Santa Claus when it was Bobby Heenan, how much shit we went through because people thought that someone was attacking Santa Claus and not Bobby Heenan. The USA network was up in arms.
Who was Santa Claus:
The guy’s name is Roy. He was from upstate Massachusetts. He worked in the northeast on a lot of independents, and worked later on as The Mountie in the independents. A good guy, nice worker.
The kid in the segment:
The kid [in the segment] is one of the Usos. We were looking for a kid to sit on Santa’s lap, and they were backstage with Rikishi at the time, so that’s one of the Usos. It’s either Jimmy or Jey. Gotta love [that it’s their WWE debut]. Even then they’re thinking “I could go in the ring and hit that fat fucker with something.”
What Bruce wanted done differently:
I kept telling him, “Man, Steve, you gotta take the stuff off of him first to prove he isn’t actually Santa Claus,” but as usual nobody listened to me. They just went ahead and they finally got it off of him, but you never saw that it was just some guy. Never got the beard off him, but they got a little hair off him and the hat off him.
If there was a concern that Austin wouldn’t be ready for the Royal Rumble:
Yes there was, but Vince gave us the mandate that we have to plan and we have to write our television as if he was the guy. If he’s not and something happens then we’ll come up with a plan b. For right now, we have to think positively and work toward that goal. We weren’t allowed to look at it any differently. We were trying to protect that investment and make it all work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u17WYKZ_yMg