WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin recently did an interview with Alfred Konuwa of Forbes. The following highlights were sent to us:
His Friendship with CM Punk:
“Man, I just sent Punk a message last night. I didn’t know he had torn his triceps. I haven’t been following anything. I don’t know what’s going on with that. Me and Phil trade messages every here and there. We rarely talk, probably once or twice a year. I love the guy, and I don’t even know if I mentored him because Punk’s probably a lot smarter than I am.”
“Great promo guy, great worker, he’s got his own thing going and we’re just friends. So I think I remember there’s a picture of myself and him from Chicago, my favorite town to work in, my favorite building. And I guess he had come down to where we were all hanging out. Maybe he looked up to me back in the day, but I don’t know if I so much mentored him because I think he paid his own dues. He learned it the way he did and he got over on his own merits. The fact that maybe I could have been somewhat of an influence would be flattering if that were the case. But he’s made his own career.”
“But I don’t even know what’s going on with the current situation or what they’re doing because right now I rarely watch any of the product. I watch all the pay-per-views and major pay-per-views, but he’s certainly carved out a hellacious career in his own right by his own right.”
What He Likes About Today’s Product and What He Hates:
The performance level has sped up so much, and the guys and gals are doing so much incredible stuff. It’s absolutely unbelievable. It’s kinda like—being such a big football fan—I was just watching clips of Mean Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I used to be a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. And you watch those greats from back then into what the guys are doing now, and the guys now are just so much quicker, faster. Of course everything is. The camera’s better.
These days, even though if I look at Attitude Era stuff, I look like I’m in slow motion watching what these superstars today are doing with better cameras and just better athletes. I really enjoy some of the sequences that they’re able to do. But then that also takes me back to one of the things that I don’t like is sometimes I think there’s too much being done.
It’s kind of like a double-edged sword, which one do you want? And on one hand, I respect all the athleticism, but sometimes I think it’s too much. But at the end of the day, everything evolves and gets kind of faster it seems. And I love the product, I love reality based storylines and I think the men and women that are participating in it today are much better athletes. There’s been better athletes decades ago, but I really think there’s some really great work being done in the ring right now.”
