THE STONE COLD TRUTH (17 page)

He was running ECW, Extreme Championship Wrestling, a small but popular group in Philadelphia. It had a cult-type following that loved ECW’s violent and hardcore style.

I always got along well with Paul, even though he’s one of the best, world-class BSers I ever ran across. He’s a guy who’s my age, or maybe a little older, but he’s been in the business forever and knows a lot about it. I respect a lot of his opinions. I just wouldn’t want him doing my taxes or answering my phone.

Anyway, he called me and said, “Hey, man, why don’t you come up here and work for us?”

I said, “Paul, my arm’s still messed up. I can’t wrestle just yet.”

He said, “That doesn’t matter. Come on up and we can cut some promos. You’ll just talk. I’ll pay you five hundred dollars a show.”

I was thinking,
He’s going to pay me five hundred bucks a night to just cut promos? Hell, man, I’m in.
I had just lost a job making almost six thousand dollars a week, and any money coming in was going to be of help to me and my family.

So Paul flew me up to Philadelphia. There was someone there to pick me up and they took me right to the building.

I got there and Paul said, “I want you to do an in-ring interview.”

I said, “Sure. What do you want me to talk about?”

He said, “Hell, anything. Whatever you want. What about getting fired? What about WCW? Talk about that. We’ll just sit down, Steve, and talk about how you feel, for real.”

So I cut about an eight- or ten-minute promo talking about what had happened down in WCW. And I started doing the Bischoff impressions. And Heyman just let me go off. He’d throw out a scenario or ask me if I had any ideas, and I started to do these impressions of Hulk Hogan or Bischoff or whoever else I was doing, and most of these interviews were done between three and five in the morning.

Other guys were doing their promos and vignettes at that time. Everything always ran late because it was only a one- or two-man crew with one camera. Of course, Paul was doing everything and directing everybody. And he gave me an opportunity and a platform to vent all the years of frustration that had been built up from WCW. The interview skills I later used in WWE were actually developed and refined during my short stint with ECW.

“Stunning” Steve Austin with Paul Heyman.

In my first appearance with ECW, I did a shoot promo—in other words, a serious one—that aired prior to ECW’s weekly program. I talked about my termination from WCW, the political games backstage and my future in the business. It was the start of a whole new attitude for me.

ECW might have found their fan base by trashing the other two major companies, but for me, it wasn’t really about trashing them. It was about finally getting a platform for something I really had a reason to talk about. That was stuff from my heart. It was stuff that I felt. Those turned out to be some of my best interviews. The way I see it, if WWE ever gets back to allowing talent to speak from their heart and not from memory, our product and business would improve dramatically.

That’s what really taught me to properly cut a promo—having something to talk about and getting the chance to do it. I owe Paul Heyman for that opportunity, because he was the guy who let me do it. And he’s the guy who gave me feedback. He’d tell me what I might want to talk about, but he didn’t tell me how to say it.

He’d just say, “Talk about this.”

I’d say, “Well …”

And he’d say, “Just talk about how you really feel.”

Man, once he said that, there I was. So I have to give Paul E. a lot of credit for my learning how to cut a promo.

I wasn’t “Stunning Steve” anymore. I had cut my hair off when I was in WCW. I was in the process of growing it back. It was medium length, almost on my red neck again. My gimmick there was I was coming out of WCW, which was a much bigger organization than ECW, so I was, of course, a superstar. They called me, “The Extreme SuperStar Steve Austin.”

And Paul even picked the perfect music for me to come out to, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I’ll tell you one thing about Paul E.—the guy’s volatile, but he’s got a lot of ideas.

One time Paul wanted me to wrestle a match against Mikey Whipwreck, a cruiser-weight-size, homegrown ECW babyface, and Paul wanted me to take the belt off him.

I said, “Okay, Paul, I’ll do that, but damn, let him beat me one time.”

If you just put me in there with a Mikey Whipwreck—type guy,
everybody knows I’m going to beat him. Why not surprise everybody and let him beat me, and then we’ll do another one and then I’ll take the belt off him? We did that and it seemed to work.

I also did one match with the Sandman. It was a Kendo Stick match or something crazy like that. I don’t remember a whole lot about my matches in ECW. They weren’t what you’d call classic wrestling. I know Mikey Whipwreck beat me with my trunks pulled way up. But that was my idea. I was there to talk trash and cut promos and raise the heat level at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia.

I used to love to watch Cactus Jack and Raven do promos on each other when they were both in ECW. Those were some brilliant promos and I learned from them too. It just goes to show how smart Cactus Jack is, and also Raven, at turning bull crap into something that is legendary. Those guys were magic. Cactus, Mick Foley, became a huge star in WWE while Raven never did. WWE may have missed the boat on Raven.

People were watching that ECW stuff and seeing what I was doing since I was fired from WCW. It was outrageous stuff and a lot of fun to do while I was healing up. I was only there a few months. I cut scathing, sarcastic promos on WCW and on Bischoff. I also did bad impersonations of Hulk Hogan. It was a lot of funny stuff, but I was learning how to cut promos and my character became more defined.

So there I was, cutting promos in ECW. My old friend Kevin Nash liked them and told me he was talking to WWE about me. Kevin and I used to travel together back in WCW, and he was instrumental in getting WWE to call me up.

Kevin asked Vince, “Hey, what are you guys doing about Steve Austin?

Vince said, “Nothing.”

I had spoken with Vince once before. It was when I was negotiating with WCW and my contract was almost up. I was flown up to meet with Vince and Bruce Prichard at Vince’s house. I didn’t see that they really had a whole lot for me, so I went back to WCW.

Another time, I was flown up to talk to Bill Watts, when he was helping Vince out at WWE and acting as Vince’s assistant. But again, there wasn’t a whole lot there for me, so I flew back home.

After Bill Watts was gone, Kevin Nash asked Vince McMahon again, “What are you guys doing about Steve Austin?”

Vince said, “What do you mean?”

Kevin said, “Well, hell, he’s the hottest free agent out there. You guys ain’t trying to sign him?”

J.R., who was watching my stuff in ECW late Saturday night on the MSG Network from his home in Connecticut, was just getting started in the WWE Talent Relations Department. He was also a major factor in getting Vince to think about me in a positive way.

Sure enough, not too many days later, my kitchen phone rang. I was still in an arm cast, living in a log house in Georgia. It was Vince McMahon, the most powerful figure on the face of the wrestling planet.

Vince had an idea for me.

15
Jim “J.R.” Ross

I
want to say something at this point about my good buddy Jim “J.R.” Ross. Ever since he helped bring me to Vince McMahon’s attention and opened a door for me at WWE, he has been one of my best friends.