Jim Ross recently talked about a wide range of topics on his Grilling JR podcast.
During it, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed whether Steve Austin was frustrated with his 2003 WWE creative as co-Raw GM with Eric Bischoff:
“I don’t think he was just happy to be there whatsoever. I think that he was challenging himself to present creativity to Steve, the kind of guy that he could tell you right off the bat. What he liked, or more specifically and more often, what he didn’t like. The negative at times was he didn’t have a better idea. He knew what he wanted when he heard it. And it was very good at that. His instincts are phenomenal. But he has his downfall, if there is one with a stone cold and he kind of has to look for it because it’s not that readily available. Okay, then, what’s your idea? Right. And he didn’t have that. That was not his forte, but he darn sure could execute what he believed in, as we saw on numerous occasions. But he was challenging to book for. We’d done so much with Steve. Steve just needed a hot heel to work with. And to get in the ring with and to do his thing. And sometimes that didn’t materialize. But make no doubt about it, he was the number one guy that everybody was trying to create for. Come up with an idea. And it wasn’t easy with Steve because, like I said, we’d done so much. What more can you do? What other vehicles can you drive to the arena, in the back, or whatever? I mean, how many Corvettes can he trash? How many Zambonis can he drive? All those things. So it was always challenging because the creativity prior to this was absolutely tremendous. So I think that’s where his frustration came from. You know, how come I don’t have any ideas like those? Or those just don’t come automatically. And it’s challenging, but he could take a little something that he liked and make it really, really good. And I thought his work with Bischoff was outstanding. Bischoff was a very, very good villain. And as I told, Paul Heyman one time, and by the way, we got some great feedback on our Paul Heyman show last week, so if folks haven’t heard it, you might want to check it out because it’s really, I thought a good Conrad and I had a lot of fun doing it and telling Heyman stories and so forth and so on. So anyhow, Steve had a good chemistry with Bischoff, and Bischoff was easy to dislike. And that’s the key component that you need for a heel. Make sure they don’t have many redeeming social qualities so they’re easier to dislike. And certainly, that was the case with Eric.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit the Grilling JR with an h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.