Steve Austin was a recent guest on “Dale Jr. Download”. During the interview, he discussed the evolution of his promos. Austin gave credit to both Brian Pillman and Paul Heyman for helping him develop his promo skills. Here are the highlights:
On The Evolution Of His Promo Skills:
You start off being bad at it. You talk about green as grass. I go out there and try to talk. You first start off, your voice is really high. You haven’t learned to talk from your diaphragm. You don’t really know what to say. You haven’t really created a character so there’s no ground base to build from so you flounder. You’re doing the best you can but when you s–t the bed, you’ve done just that. Once you fall on your face enough you learn this is sink or swim. These are shark infested waters. You better succeed or your ass is going to get left behind.
On Brian Pillman:
They didn’t think I had ‘it’ yet so they stuck me in a Tag Team with Flyin’ Brian Pillman. Brian was one of those guys who would sit there and read dictionaries and books just to increase his vocabulary. He was forward thinking and if you put a microphone in front of his face, he always had something to say. So all of a sudden, it was like ‘You better crank it up Steve cuz you’re going to sound like a deaf mute next to Flyin’ Brian because he’s lightening it up’.
On Paul Heyman:
Paul had just started ECW down in Philly. Paul said, ‘Hey Steve, you’re up’. And I said, “What do you want me to talk about?’. Paul said, ‘Just talk about how you’re feeling. Just talk’. He turned the cameras on and I rattled off that promo still on YouTube and I talked for about six minutes nonstop. Ad-lib. Told it like it was. And that was probably the groundbreaking promo where I started feeling who and what I was. I hadn’t come up with the Stone Cold thing yet, but I realized at that point that who I was in that ring was, if you turn me up to eleven, that’s me. Paul Heyman taught me to deliver a message, get that message across, and make people feel things because that’s how you draw money.
On Dealing With Nerves During A Promo:
The last thing you want to do is hacking and coughing during a promo when you’re trying to get to the bottom line. You’re out there trying to string some words together and realizing that it’s sink or swim, especially when its live TV. I was nervous to a degree. But I was so ready. It’s a nervous energy. You could still feel some nerves but the bigger the crowd and the more cameras there was, I thrived on it.
You can listen to the full interview below:
Credit: Dale Jr. Download. H/T WrestlingInc.
