During a recent appearance on Steve Austin’s podcast, Jerry Lawler and Austin talked about scripted promos in WWE and Lawler mentioned how it appears that talents are being given a little bit more creative freedom due to Paul Heyman’s influence:
Lawler: “Now that Paul Heyman is sort of in charge of RAW, it’s so much not the characters that are being predetermined by the writers or creative,” Lawler said. “They’re giving the guys a chance to be themselves just like [Austin was] back when [Austin] became ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. Nobody was telling you, ‘oh, this is how it [has] got to be.’ [Austin was himself] and [he] was given that opportunity and [Austin] took it.”
Austin: “When you’ve got somebody micromanaging you and telling you every single thing to do, you kind of turn into a robot and you think, ‘am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? Am I screwing this up?'” Austin added, “you’re too much in your head.”
Lawler: “I remember when I was not doing [RAW] on a regular basis, but I would come back and do WrestleMania, or Royal Rumble, or something like that. And I’ll never forget. I was in the back. And [Austin has] come back and been in the back. And all-of-a-sudden, you’ll get something from the writers, an interview they want you to cut, right? And I’m standing there in the back, and I looked over, and I see Ric Flair reading a promo that some 20 year old kid has written for him. And I thought, ‘oh my God, what on Earth has happened to the business [of professional wrestling]?'” Lawler laughed, “that’s the part that I don’t get.”
“But do you know what? Lawler asked rhetorically. “I really do think a little bit of that is changing now with Heyman in charge of RAW. Yeah, he’s letting guys – like [Austin] said, giving them some bullet points and letting them go on their own.”
