Christian has revealed a piece of advice he received from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin that helped change his approach towards his matches.
Speaking with SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio, Christian recalled his attitude towards his career at the time. He also described seeking feedback from Austin after an early match in his singles career.
“For me, early on in my career, […] I think I was smart enough to realize what I was, and that I was never gonna be the biggest guy, I was never gonna be the strongest guy, I was never gonna be the fastest guy,” Christian explained. “So, instead of focusing and trying to be great at one thing, I wanted to be good at everything.”
“It’s funny, if I look back at tape of myself now when I first started with WWE, I was like ‘Man, how did I get a job?’ You know, I just wasn’t that good. It just seemed like I was out there trying to put 10 pounds of crap in a 5-pound bag, just trying to do things,” he said.
Shortly after branching off into singles matches, he asked Austin for some thoughts on a match he believed had gone well. Turns out Austin thought differently.
“I came back, I sought out Steve, I was like ‘Hey, what did you think?,’ he turns around and looks at me dead in the eyes and says ‘Why don’t you learn how to effin’ sell?’ and walked away. That was a kick in the face, and I was like ‘Wow, like..what?”
Off this advice, Christian explained how he “went back and I watched a bunch of my tapes, and I was like ‘He’s right.’ I’m registering, but I’m not selling. So I had to fix that part of my game.”
