Steve Austin Says Roman Reigns Should Follow The Rock's Career Trajectory, Reigns Should "Go For It"
On episodes 303 and 305 of The Steve Austin Show, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin spoke with Wrestling Inc.'s Vince Russo. During the interview, Austin provided some advice to Roman Reigns on getting over with the WWE Universe. Austin stated that the former Shield member's career path in professional wrestling should follow a similar trajectory as his cousin, The Rock, who debuted in WWE as Rocky Maivia in 1996.
"When Rocky Maivia came in, he was a white meat babyface with the streamers and got over bad and dude got booed out of the building, 'Die Rocky Die' chants. Put him in the Nation [of Domination and] boom! He ousted Faarooq. He became the focal piece of that faction. Then, all of a sudden, we know the rest. He had one of the greatest runs in the history of the [professional wrestling] business. But he had to be hated first before he was universally loved. And I keep saying that Roman's going to have to go through a heel run before he is going to be universally loved."
See Also: Roman Reigns Says The Rock Knew What The Reaction Would Be At Royal Rumble
Also, Austin shared some advice for Reigns, as he would like to see 'The Samoan Badass' emote more. In Austin's view, conveying emotion is more important than being perfect and Reigns is too worried about making mistakes.
"With respect to Roman Reigns, dude, you just got to go for it. I think you just throw caution to the wind and say, 'what the f-?', and just go for it." Austin added, "there's not enough fire and it's not just within his promo. I would dare say it's also within his work, so, dude, just channel it out. And be offensive with it. That means, like [Vince Russo] said, be on offense. Don't be on defense. Don't be afraid. Just go out and do it."
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Source: The Steve Austin Show