WWE superstar Randy Orton was the latest guest on Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Broken Skull sessions to discuss his prestigious career, which includes Orton admitting he finally understands the importance of cutting a good promo. Highlights are below.
Recalls Austin criticizing his promos in the past and admits he wished he listened:
I’ve been around, but the promos, they were always mediocre. I was concentrating on the in-ring stuff, and I did that for years. I even remember that the reason I give you a bit of shit and I say ‘you weren’t too fond of me,’ is I know you’ve done interviews before where you shit on my promos. At the time, I’m like ‘f*ck him.’ But you were right. I think it was Michael Hayes, not too long ago, he said, ‘Randy if you look at all the guys who have had a Hall of Fame career, they were all good workers but could cut a good promo — a great promo. They were great on the mic. You’re not great on the mic, but you’re kind of in that mix and that’s odd to me.’ He said that to me, and it’s like, I need to give this more thought.
Says he realized about a year ago how important promos were:
For years I didn’t want to hear it. When he would say that my promos were the shit, I didn’t want to hear it. I knew that I was good enough to get by and do my thing. When you talk about the downs as opposed to the ups, those downs would put me in that funk to where I was good enough to stay out all night, not treat myself the best possible way I could be treating myself. Sleep in, miss the gym, show up to work, wipe the sleep out of my eye, put on my boots, and go kill it. I’ve always been so blessed in that regard, but I realized about a year ago how important promos were and it’s embarrassing to say especially to someone like you that it took me that long to realize that.
You can watch the full Broken Skull Sessions on Peacock. (H/T and transcribed by Fightful)