Christian on the Career-Changing Advice That Steve Austin Gave Him

During a recent edition of the Edge and Christian Pod of Awesomeness, Christian recalled his early days in WWE, and he explained why it’s important for the younger talent to seek out veterans for advice. He also talked about the career-changing advice that Steve Austin, who was WWE’s top guy at the time, gave him.

“I was at a live event, I’ll never forget it, in Nebraska, and I was working singles. You and I had split up, and Steve Austin was main-eventing. Steve was a guy that I respected, that I still respect, and what I respected him for was the fact that he was this guy who probably could have shown up when he wanted to, when the show was going on, or he could leave early. But he didn’t. He was there before everybody else. He left long after everybody was gone. He was the first there, last to leave, and he watched everything. I always respected him for that because that’s what a guy in his position did.

“I remember asking him specifically ‘Hey, can you watch my match tonight? I’m trying to get better as a singles performer.’ And Steve doesn’t pull punches, he’s a straight shooter. I came back from the match… and Steve is a friend of mine. I thought he’d be like ‘Hey, this is a buddy,’ the crowd was reacting, match was good, got reactions. I’ll never forget it… I walked back and said ‘What did you think?’

“He looked me straight in the eyes and said ‘Why don’t you learn how to f**king sell?’ Then he walked away.

“I was like ‘Whoa. Hold on a second here. What?’ I went back and watched a bunch of my matches and realized ‘He’s right. I don’t sell enough.’