WWE News: Stone Cold offers precious advice for Roman Reigns, talks about his 2001 heel turn
Legendary former WWE superstar Steve Austin recently interacted with fans via a Q&A session on the Steve Austin Show. The interaction saw Austin express his concerns over United States Champion Roman Reigns’ present predicament and had some sound advice to help him improve.
According to the Texas Rattlesnake, Reigns needs to be active in terms of selling his game so that he can cash in on his popularity. Austin feels that the 31-year old superstar has a lot of calibre and that he will achieve greater things in the long run. Austin remarked that:
"He needs a little bit more fire on the offence, a little more active, sell on the run on defence. I think that'd help him out."
"He needs to pick his head up. He needs to sell on the run, be more active. He has a bad habit of dying when he sells. To his credit, he will sell for anybody. He's very unselfish in the ring in regards to that,”
He further went on to add:
“But because he sells so much, he just needs a more active sell to keep those people buying in, so he can get that sympathy. He's a big, good looking guy. He's putting his game together. Come up with better storylines for the guy. I still have high hopes for Roman Reigns."
During the session, the WWE Hall of Famer also discussed his much talked-about ‘heel’ turn back in 2001. Austin revealed that it was his urge to move beyond the ‘Stone Cold’ persona which inspired him to take this decision.
He said,
"I felt as a babyface I began to flatline a little bit. I needed to reinvent myself to a degree. I was a little bit burned out, I think, because I was run real hard, partying a lot. I still loved the business, was working my ass off, we [were] selling out.
Rock was hot and that was very important to me because I needed that match. When I said in that promo, 'I need that belt, Rock. I need it more than anything you could ever imagine', that was a shoot statement. I meant it. And that program kind of reenergized the 'Stone Cold' character."
Steve Austin, however, expressed his regret over deciding to be a ‘heel’ for his match against The Rock in Wrestlemania 17 and wished that he had delivered a Stunner to WWE owner Vince McMahon instead. He also confessed how difficult it was for him to carry out the task as no one wanted him to operate as a ‘heel’.
"Had I called an audible, told Vince, 'I'm staying baby - here's a Stunner', I wish I would have because I think that would just have launched us all the way back until 2003, when I had my last match with The Rock at [WrestleMania 19] in fine fashion, rather than turning heel, and struggling so much, trying to swim upstream, so to speak, working as a heel because people didn't want to see me work as a heel."
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