Steve Austin Explains How He Learned to Cut Great Wrestling Promos

Steve Austin shot to super stardom following a famous promo at the 1996 King of the Ring where he [...]

Steve Austin shot to super stardom following a famous promo at the 1996 King of the Ring where he uttered the phrase "Austin 3:16."

However, believe it or not, one of the most vocal stars of wrestling's biggest boom period wasn't always great on the microphone. He explained how he evolved in that department during a recent interview on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s podcast.

"You start off being bad at it," Austin said. "You talk about green as grass. I go out there and try to talk. You first start off, your voice is really high. You haven't learned to talk from your diaphragm. You don't really know what to say. You haven't really created a character so there's no ground base to build from so you flounder. You're doing the best you can but when you s--t the bed, you've done just that. Once you fall on your face enough you learn this is sink or swim. These are shark infested waters. You better succeed or your ass is going to get left behind."

Eventually, Austin was placed in a tag team with the late Brian Pillman. The team, known as the Hollywood Blonds, became one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history. Then, in total WCW fashion, the team was split up at the height of their powers.

However, that time with Pillman transformed Austin into someone who was much more comfortable on the microphone and in front of the camera.

"They didn't think I had 'it' yet so they stuck me in a Tag Team with Flyin' Brian Pillman. Brian was one of those guys who would sit there and read dictionaries and books just to increase his vocabulary. He was forward thinking and if you put a microphone in front of his face, he always had something to say. So all of a sudden, it was like 'You better crank it up Steve cuz you're going to sound like a deaf mute next to Flyin' Brian because he's lightening it up'."

Following his run with WCW, Austin had a brief tenure in ECW before arriving with WWE. During that time in Philadelphia, Austin continued to grow on the microphone with the advice of Paul Heyman.

"Paul had just started ECW down in Philly," Austin remembered. "Paul said, 'Hey Steve, you're up'. And I said, "What do you want me to talk about?'. Paul said, 'Just talk about how you're feeling. Just talk'. He turned the cameras on and I rattled off that promo still on YouTube and I talked for about six minutes nonstop. Ad-lib. Told it like it was. And that was probably the groundbreaking promo where I started feeling who and what I was. I hadn't come up with the Stone Cold thing yet, but I realized at that point that who I was in that ring was, if you turn me up to eleven, that's me. Paul Heyman taught me to deliver a message, get that message across, and make people feel things because that's how you draw money."

Even so, nerves were always in the back of Austin's mind even when he was at the top of his game. One never gets entirely comfortable when it comes to talking in front of millions of people after all.

"The last thing you want to do is hacking and coughing during a promo when you're trying to get to the bottom line," Austin laughed. "You're out there trying to string some words together and realizing that it's sink or swim, especially when its live TV. I was nervous to a degree. But I was so ready. It's a nervous energy. You could still feel some nerves but the bigger the crowd and the more cameras there was, I thrived on it."

[H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript]

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