WWE.com has published Part 2 of their recent interview with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
Paul Heyman Being A Genius “I always give credit to Paul for helping me to understand what a promo was. And giving me a chance to cut them and giving me the confidence and the platform to cut promos. Man, if it hadn’t been for Paul Heyman offering me a job in ECW, I don’t know if “Stone Cold” would have ever been.”
“You look at those rosters they used to have down in ECW, and they had some damn good talent, and they also had a bunch of misfits. Damn near all of them? Damn good promos.”
“And that was a product of working with Paul Heyman, and Paul Heyman working — however he worked — with each individual talent. I can’t speak to that because I only know how Paul worked with me, but you look at all the great promos that came out of that territory, and I remember watching ECW when I could find it on TV and watching a lot of the old VHS tapes or whatever it was back in the day. Man, that was a badass show with a lot of energy, a lot of attitude and testosterone.”
“Paul Heyman — I give him that “G” word. I give him that “genius” word. I got nothing but respect for that guy. He’s an old buddy from back in the day, when we met in WCW and he was my manager and we drove down the road together.””
If John Cena Would Succeed In The Attitude Era: “Yeah, had he been placed in it, and been dealt with accordingly, the John Cena you see now — the face of the franchise, the leader of the pack? Not so much. But I guarantee if you’d have gotten him face to face with “Stone Cold” in an interview, and you know John cuts a good interview himself, if I slapped the s*** out of that son of a b****, I think we’re off and running to make a lot of money.”
“All he needs is to be poked and prodded in the right way. I think John Cena has a hell of a lot of fire and he needs to be in the ring with the right opponent, or the right cat, to bring that out. So in the current environment, you really don’t see that in him.”
“Place [Cena] back 10 years in the ring with “Stone Cold”? You’d have rung the cash register, big time.”
To read what Steve Austin said about working with Bret Hart, his thoughts on “Superstar” Billy Graham and his favorite moment in pro wrestling history, head over to WWE.com to for the full interview.