Steve Austin Talks Advice For Roman Reigns, If He Still Has High Hopes For Him, His WWE Heel Turn
Recently on The Steve Austin Show, professional wrestling great Steve Austin participated in a fan Q&A session. During the podcast, Austin offered some in-ring advice to current WWE United States Champion Roman Reigns. Also, Austin talked about his 2001 heel turn.
Austin suggested that Reigns should sell on the run because he has the tendency of "dying" when he is selling. With that said, 'The Texas Rattlesnake' credited Reigns for being very unselfish in the ring.
"He needs a little bit more fire on the offense, a little more active, sell on the run on defense. I think that'd help him out." Austin observed, "he needs to pick his head up. He needs to sell on the run, be more active. He has a bad habit of dying when he sells. To his credit, he will sell for anybody. He's very unselfish in the ring in regards to that. But because he sells so much, he just needs a more active sell to keep those people buying in, so he can get that sympathy. He's a big, good looking guy. He's putting his game together. Come up with better storylines for the guy. I still have high hopes for Roman Reigns."
On his shocking and controversial heel turn in 2001, Austin said that he felt like his 'Stone Cold' character was "flatlining" and that he needed to reinvent himself.
"I felt as a babyface I began to flatline a little bit. I needed to reinvent myself to a degree. I was a little bit burned out, I think, because I was run real hard, partying a lot. I still loved the business, was working my ass off, we [were] selling out. Rock was hot and that was very important to me because I needed that match. When I said in that promo, 'I need that belt, Rock. I need it more than anything you could ever imagine', that was a shoot statement. I meant it. And that program kind of reenergized the 'Stone Cold' character."
According to Austin, he wishes that he called an audible and gave Vince McMahon a 'Stone Cold' Stunner instead of completing the heel turn at WrestleMania 17.
"Had I called an audible, told Vince, 'I'm staying baby – here's a Stunner', I wish I would have because I think that would just have launched us all the way back until 2003, when I had my last match with The Rock at [WrestleMania 19] in fine fashion, rather than turning heel, and struggling so much, trying to swim upstream, so to speak, working as a heel because people didn't want to see me work as a heel."
Check out the show here. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit The Steve Austin Show with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Steve Austin Show