By Richard Gray on April 30, 2004 at 4:49 PM EST

WWE is blaming a lot of the problems between themselves and Steve Austin on Austin's lawyer, saying that the lawyer doesn't understand the importance of Austin remaining on WWE TV for his own marketing. However, Austin himself was not going to sign off on a new deal unless he had control of his external deals and reportedly WWE was willing to make some concessions in this area but only in areas that were not in competition to any existing WWE deals. Austin and Vince McMahon broke off talks on 4/16 in a positive manner by saying that they would work together again some day. The company also promised not to bury Austin publicly on TV.

WWE.COM: Deals Finalized With Sting, Debut Monday On RAW (Full >)