During a recent edition of his podcast, The Steve Austin Show, Stone Cold Steve Austin reflected on the first time he was handed a scripted promo by WWE. Believe it or not, that was way back in 1999 when he returned from neck surgery and up until that point, Austin was used to just getting bullet points and filling in the gaps himself.
"When I came back, that’s when the papers started coming around," the Texas Rattlesnake explained. "And all-of-a-sudden, man, I’ll never forget, I was in a room with Vince, and, well, somebody had to track me down. I was watching matches. ‘Hey man, Vince wants to go through this promo with you’ and so, just like this piece of paper here, and I said, ‘Vince… when I get my hands on you… I… am… going… to… tear… you… limb… from… limb…’"
Austin went on to detail how Vince McMahon expected him to deliver the promo in front of him as he would in the ring and that was something the former WWE Champion couldn't get on board with.
"He goes, ‘goddamn it, Steve! Give me your A-promo!’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not going to give you my A-promo here because I can’t give you my A-promo here because I’m not ‘Stone Cold’ in here!’ I’m ‘Stone Cold’ when I get out there and that’s when I turn that s–t on and that’s when I’m in a whole different universe," he continued. "And that’s when, dude, when the red light’s going, if it’s a TV taping, or especially if it’s live, that’s when I’m really on."
It's interesting that McMahon started scripting promos this early and even more fascinating to learn how Superstars like Austin felt about that. These days, WWE has a team of writers who put promos together and that lack of freedom on the part of Superstars is something fans frequently find fault with (it took Roman Reigns years to get over some of the awful things he was scripted to say).
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