• Steve Austin Hates Wrestlers Pointing At WrestleMania Sign All The Time
During a recent edition of The Steve Austin Show podcast with Vince Russo as special guest, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Vince Russo discussed WWE overdoing the WrestleMania sign pointing, modern pro-wrestling style killing the character & losing the casual televisions fans, lack of emotions and character making wrestling look like a video game and why there is no extra effort from WWE to turn all that around.
Below are the highlights:
Austin on WWE overdoing the WrestleMania sign pointing:
“I’m trying not to watch as the grizzled veteran, 30 years or watch or 40 years or watching wrestling and go along for the ride, but when the ride’s going too fast, and everybody is pantomiming, pointing at that f-ing WrestleMania sign. It’s like, ‘dude, I get it, okay? April the 8th is right around the corner!’ But if I get one more guy or one more girl coming out there and pointing at that frigging green sign, I get it! It’s kind of like, ‘hello? McFly? Do you not see that giant WrestleMania sign over there?”
Russo on modern pro-wrestling style killing the character & losing the casual televisions fans:
“I saw this 10 years ago. The style of matches is what [has] killed the character and I can tell you why, Steve. 10 years ago, when I was in TNA all these young guys started to come up. The Young Bucks were in TNA, The Motor City Machine Guns, [Chris] Sabin and [Alex] Shelley. The young guys were coming up and what I would notice, Steve, I would sit in the back and here’s what I’m seeing all day. They’re walking around by themselves, they’ve laid out the match and everything, but they’re walking around by themselves all day.
This is what I’m saying and here’s the problem. Again, bro, where are the agents? Where are the producers? Here’s the problem: because of the style of the match today, they are so consumed with memorizing the spots. Bro, they are so consumed with memorizing the spots the character goes out the window. Every character would sell differently. Every character would go on offense differently. That was all part of the character. When you are memorizing spot for spot for spot, the first thing that goes out the window is the character.
Now, all-of-a-sudden, you have a roster full of wrestlers and the only people that are going to tune in to your show are 100% pure wrestling fans. You’re not going to expand your business because they don’t like wrestling. All the people that we got to buy in because of the characters and the story, the casual television fans.”
Austin on lack of emotions and character development making wrestling look like a video game:
“At the end of the day, going back to [Russo’s] match analyzation, it almost turns into a video game where it’s the red guy versus the blue guy and it’s just movement, this way and that way. And the emotion is gone and if you don’t have emotion… Yeah, the audience has been conditioned to say, ‘this is awesome! This is awesome! This is awesome!’ Man, I don’t know. Is it awesome? Is it really?
When you give a cat, whether it is a guy or a girl, so many words to say, and you can see them trying to remember the promo, the first thing that leaves is the character and the emotion because they’re trying to cut the promo verbatim per the writer, per whoever. I think it should go back to character development and not how many words they say because nobody talks in a monotone [voice] to deliver a message!”
Austin on why there is no extra effort from WWE to turn all that around:
“I think they are so overloaded with work that that’s all they can do, the three hours of RAW, the two hours of SmackDown, and everything else that they’re doing within the [WWE] Network. Dude, those guys are shooting so much content it’s unbelievable. The amount of work that goes into it is countless hours. So I know the passion’s still there. I just think it’s so much content and because there’s not WCW banging on the door.
Dude, the stakes aren’t as high. I mean, you want the ratings to be there. I’m not crapping on the guys. I ain’t crapping on the office. But the sense of urgency has changed and it’s a little flatlined when it should always be like you’re watching an [atrial electrogram] monitor on someone’s heart that should have spikes and ups and downs. A straight line? Come on, man. I think it’s too much content.”
• Torrie Wilson Proves Why Age Is Just A Number (Hot New Photos)
Torrie Wilson might be 42 years old, but her recent Instagram posts prove why age is just a number. You can check them out below:
