WWE Asks Steve Austin If He Will Wrestle Again, Wants to Ask Vince About CM Punk Tonight

WWE’s website has a new interview with Steve Austin to promote tonight’s live podcast with Vince McMahon on the WWE Network after RAW goes off the air.

Austin commented on how podcasting is different than working the microphone in WWE:
“Interviewing somebody is a lot different than being handed a stick in a 20,000-seat arena and trying to sell tickets. You’re very green when you start. I’m still learning things to this day. I’m decent at interviews now, but man, getting people to buy tickets is the easiest thing in the world for me. We’ve already set the hook, so I’m on cruise control. For the openings of my show, I’m sitting at my house with a Zoom H4n Recorder and a Shure microphone and I stop and start up to 15 or 70 or more times, because I didn’t feel like the material was good enough. What I love about podcasting is it’s guerilla radio. I don’t have to stick to anybody’s protocol or format. I can operate my show just like I want to, but at the end of the day, it’s just a can of audio whoopa**. My show is built to entertain.”

Austin was asked the one thing he wants Vince to answer tonight. He replied:
“Nothing is off limits. There’s a line that I won’t cross, but that’s for my standards — nothing that WWE has told me. There are many things I’d like to ask him. I’d like to know what’s going on with CM Punk. I’d like to know how Daniel Bryan’s health is. I’d like to know whose idea it was in Atlanta [that made me] take my ball and go home in 2002. I reacted the worst way possible, but I want to know who came up with that masterpiece of an idea. Guys like me come along very seldom in the wrestling business. You can count ’em on a couple of fingers.”

 Austin was also asked if he will be returning to the ring. He replied:
“As we speak right now, no.”

Former WCW Wrestler Rips John Cena & Randy Orton

Former WCW Wrestler Scotty Riggs was recently interviewed. Here are some highlights: 

John Cena: "Every single match is the same, and it is sickening. Five simple moves every match. When it is time for Cena's comeback it is the same moves, boom, boom, boom. That does not suspend any disbelief. That is what wrestlers are supposed to do, have the craft to anywhere in the match a finish can come up. 

"Cena has mixed himself with the Super Cena thing, which is what Vince McMahon has a hard on for, he is a good guy that is so good that it is sickening. That is why so many people don't like him. Cena is WWE's cash cow. When I am watching Cena I feel like I am watching a TV commercial. Everything he is doing, he is selling cereal, he is selling t-shirts, he is selling something in everything he does." 

Randy Orton: "Randy Orton just can't seem to find something that fits. He's got all the tools in the world, and every opportunity, but he is not allowed to be himself." 

The difference between WWE and WCW: "WWE is a TV show about wrestling, WCW in their prime was a TV show that had happened to have wrestling on it." 

WWE Network: "I'm one of those guys that I rarely ever watch my old matches. The only thing I think would be really good about WWE Network is finding stuff that fans don't know that used to be wrestling like is different than what WWE is giving them now. If WWE gives them what USWA used to be, what World Class used to be, what Florida Championship Wrestling was, if what wrestling really was in the '70s, '80s, I think it would be good because it will teach fans what wrestling was. It could hurt them (WWE) because fans can say I like 'wrestling' not 'sports entertainment' stuff." 

Hulk Hogan returning to WWE: "Hulk Hogan, even at his age, still has the 'It Factor'. The crowd loves the nostalgia that he brings. It's the same old thing, over and over again, but the fans still dig that. It still captures their childhood imagination." 

Recently catching up with Dennis Rodman: "He is the most personable, charming person you will ever meet. When Dennis Rodman walked in to the bar, he said 'Riggs, I didn't know you had a beard.' For him to remember me was a really cool moment. It was a really good time." 

Perry Saturn: "Perry Saturn is the only guy I know who is a Ranger that has had 103 successful jumps out of a perfectly good airplane and wear a dress in the ring." 

Almost signing with WWF instead of WCW: "I was being groomed as a protege of Lex Luger in the WWF. Little did we know that on the first Nitro Luger has crossed over to WCW, if I had listened to Jerry Lawler and stayed on as Lex's protege, Lex wouldn't have been there anyway. I would have been lost." 

The American Males theme song: "The great thing about that song is, the song as wacky as it is, it still stands alone today. Fans still remember that song."

Old School Stars to feature on NXT

A WWE source notes that it will be interesting to see how things develop with WWE’s developmental territory NXT. WWE views the show differently now that there are more people watching it on the WWE Network. The primary focus with NXT will always be to develop future stars for the main roster but it’s not the sole focus now that NXT has essentially turned into its own brand.

Word is that Triple H has been talking about bringing back a few acts from WWE’s past to have them work as NXT regulars. He was pleased with Too Cool’s performance at NXT Arrival and is looking for more acts from the past that can be mixed in with the NXT rookies.