"One of the all-time greats" - Steve Austin has major praise for WWE Hall of Famer (Exclusive)

Stone Cold Steve Austin has given his thoughts on the impact that Buddy Rogers had on the professional wrestling industry.

Rogers was regarded as one of the world’s best wrestlers in the 1950s and 1960s. One of his biggest accomplishments came in 1963 when he became the inaugural holder of the WWWF Championship, now known as the WWE Championship. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994.

Speaking to Sportskeeda Wrestling Senior Editor Bill Apter, Austin commented on Rogers’ extraordinary in-ring skills and athletic ability.

“I’ve seen some old footage of him, not a whole lot because it was a ways back, but he was pretty much ahead of his time with respect to a lot of the high spots he did. Everybody I’ve ever talked to spoke so highly of the guy. He was a bumping machine. He was one of the all-time greats. I wish I could see more of his work.” [5:22-5:43]

Watch the video above to hear Austin’s thoughts on various wrestling topics, including Ric Flair’s return and his tag team with Brian Pillman.

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Steve Austin is not the only legend to use a middle-finger gesture

Bill Apter’s popular book, “Is Wrestling Fixed? I Didn’t Know It Was Broken!”, features a picture of himself and Buddy Rogers in a Florida restaurant. The image shows Rogers giving Apter a middle-finger gesture – something that became synonymous with Steve Austin’s anti-authority Stone Cold character in WWE.

While Austin was allowed to flip his rivals the bird during WWE’s TV-14 days, Rogers would not have gotten away with such behavior.

“Going back to those days, for a guy like him at that time to be flying the middle fingers in the ring… taboo, couldn’t get away with it,” Austin continued. “Yeah, you can mess around in a picture and do it, but you couldn’t do it in the ring.” [5:45-6:02]

As WWE RAW gets ready to possibly return to a TV-14 rating, should superstars be allowed to use middle-finger taunts on television? Or should the company stick to a more family-friendly product? Let us know your opinion in the comment section!

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