{"id":7152,"date":"2015-12-31T23:55:25","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T05:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=7152"},"modified":"2016-01-01T22:37:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T04:37:36","slug":"exclusive-steve-austin-evaluates-roman-reigns-as-top-champion-what-needs-to-improve-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/31\/exclusive-steve-austin-evaluates-roman-reigns-as-top-champion-what-needs-to-improve-more\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE &#8211; Steve Austin evaluates Roman Reigns as top champion, what needs to improve"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3540035096\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>WWE has experimented with presenting new WWE World Hvt. champion Roman Reigns as a hybrid of John Cena, Daniel Bryan, and most-recently &#8220;Stone Cold&#8221; Steve Austin.<\/p>\n<p>In mid-December, WWE booked Reigns to tear through chief authority figures Triple H and Vince McMahon on his way to the WWE Title the night after the TLC PPV.<\/p>\n<p>What does Stone Cold think about the presentation, 15+ years removed from Austin warring with Mr. McMahon on a weekly basis during the Attitude Era? PWTorch editor Wade Keller asked the\u00a0former top WWE star\u00a0about the similarities in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/pro-wrestling-torch\/2015\/12\/17\/pwtorch-livecast--steve-austin-live-interview-wwade-keller\" target=\"_blank\">recent edition of the PWTorch Livecast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With him being champion, it&#8217;s going to remain to be seen how they book this guy,&#8221; Austin said. &#8220;You&#8217;re talking about a guy whose work has really improved, but he&#8217;s got to be more aggressive and he&#8217;s gotta have a sense of urgency. Now, he&#8217;s defending that belt, not chasing it, but he&#8217;s still pretty green in that regard, especially with respect to holding a championship belt. Man, he&#8217;s really got some pressure on him with the fact that now he is the champion. Right now, he is their number one guy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Austin said the other part of the equation is now Reigns has to step up his in-ring game to match the position he&#8217;s in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the end of the day, it doesn&#8217;t matter who you put him with, he&#8217;s got to shine and he&#8217;s got to do his half of the match. You know, you can book him with anybody, but now you&#8217;ve got to put on your big-boy trunks and have\u00a0a badass match. Wanting to be the top guy is a goal that everyone should have, and wanting to have that championship belt is something everyone wants to aspire to.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All of a sudden when you become that top guy or get that belt, it&#8217;s put up or shut up. It&#8217;s always good to have a goal, but when all of a sudden you&#8217;ve been kind-of prematurely pushed and kind-of rejected and then all of a sudden you&#8217;re the guy, now the pressure is on more than ever.\u00a0\u00a0All he&#8217;s got to do is shine, but the bottom line is he&#8217;s got to shine. He&#8217;s got to make chicken salad out of chicken scratch.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s either going to sink or he&#8217;s going to swim. If you swim, you&#8217;ve got to swim back to the top. You can&#8217;t just fail. You can have roadblocks put in your way; you can have performances that aren&#8217;t so great. But, at the end of the day, you&#8217;ve got to get better and you&#8217;ve got to be able to turn those people on when the bell rings within a 15-20-minute time period and give them a reason to like what you&#8217;re doing.&#8221;<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1190096162\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>[ Austin&#8217;s Full Interview from the December 17 PWTorch Livecast can be heard <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/pro-wrestling-torch\/2015\/12\/17\/pwtorch-livecast--steve-austin-live-interview-wwade-keller\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/PWTorchLivecast.com\" target=\"_blank\">PWTorchLivecast.com<\/a>. Also listen to Keller on the Dec. 17 edition of the &#8220;Steve Austin Show&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/podcastone.com\/pg\/jsp\/program\/episode.jsp?programID=542&amp;pid=573513\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/podcastone.com\/Steve-Austin-Show-Clean\" target=\"_blank\">PodcastOne.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/percolate.blogtalkradio.com\/offsiteplayer?hostId=91135&amp;episodeId=8162051\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2291639308\"><div id=\"pwtor-2540438312\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE has experimented with presenting new WWE World Hvt. champion Roman Reigns as a hybrid of John Cena, Daniel Bryan, and most-recently &#8220;Stone Cold&#8221; Steve Austin. In mid-December, WWE booked Reigns to tear through chief <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/31\/exclusive-steve-austin-evaluates-roman-reigns-as-top-champion-what-needs-to-improve-more\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE &#8211; Steve Austin evaluates Roman Reigns as top champion, what needs to improve\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,3],"tags":[137,74,353,474,139,71],"class_list":["post-7152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-news_wwe","tag-pwtorch-livecast","tag-roman-reigns","tag-steve-austin","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-wade-keller","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7152"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7228,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152\/revisions\/7228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}