LOS ANGELES -- Though he was once a member of the Hollywood Blondes tag team and now has his first starring movie role under his belt, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin never really saw himself as an action star living the Hollywood life someday.
 
"Absolutely not!" the Rattlesnake told WWE.com. "That was just a great name that Brian Pillman came up with. Me living in California? Absolutely not!"
 
But believe it. The Texas Rattlesnake has gone Hollywood -- at least in residence. Austin now resides on the West Coast full-time as he prepares to take over Tinseltown.
 
But recent appearances as special guest referee at Cyber Sunday and a showdown with Santino Marella at Raw in Los Angeles this Monday had the six-time WWE Champion reminiscing fondly of years past when he was raising hell in WWE full-time.
 
"Yeah, sometimes it makes you want to get back into the ring," Austin said. "But I've really got to set my sights on the movies and the acting."
 
Stone Cold said that he misses the lifestyle of being a WWE Superstar and the always-on-the-go schedule.
 
"The thing about being WWE Champion … is your schedule is full-blown 24/7/365," Austin recalled. "The plate's always full. I looked forward to waking up each and every day in a different arena, especially for TV tapings and pay-per-views."
 
Hollywood life moves at a slower, more frustrating pace, Stone Cold explained.
 
"Business out here happens a bit slower," he said. "There are a lot of meetings and a lot of things you have to wait on as you put the pieces together to greenlight a movie. It's a lot of ‘hurry up and wait,' and I'm not a patient guy."
 
Austin cut his acting teeth in 1999 with a recurring role as roughhousing detective Jake Cage on the Don Johnson cop drama, Nash Bridges. He's appeared on MAD TV and The Bernie Mac Show. He's lent his voice to episodes of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch and Dilbert. And he's starred on the silver screen in The Condemned and The Longest Yard.
 
But while doing those early forays into Hollywood, Austin never thought he'd make acting his full-time career.
 
"Even when I was running hot in WWE with all my championships, I'd run out to San Francisco to film Nash Bridges, and I'd be out there for three or four days and then I'd come right back on the road [with WWE]," Austin recalled. "Even then, while I was filming stuff, I never had any aspirations to get into that business. Now that I'm kind of finished in the ring, it makes sense to be where I am now."

Acting may be the Rattlesnake's No. 1 priority now, but he will always be a beer-swilling hellraiser at heart. As Santino Marella found out on Raw, Austin still follows the goings-on in WWE, and anyone can be only one cross word away from a Stone Cold Stunner.

"I love sports-entertainment, but it's time for me to do other things. But long term, I'm still part of WWE," Austin assured.

And that's the bottom line … because Stone Cold said so.

Pick up Stone Cold's Destroyed That t-shirt exclusively at WWEShop!