How did the same man who portrayed "Stunning" Steve Austin in Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling organization become the ass kicking, beer drinking bad ass "Stone Cold "Steve Austin that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon bet the proverbial ranch on? Former ECW owner and creative genius Paul Heyman has posted his latest blog on THE UK SUN , where the Mad Scientist of Extreme writes about a famous night of interviews in Philadelphia, when Austin wanted to wait until everyone else had done their interviews before he would get in front of the camera and do his.

 

"It's that desire, that competitive spirit, that insatiable craving to be number one, that propelled him above guys like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, The Undertaker, and everyone else in the business to become recognized as the one star that Vince McMahon would bet his entire future on when WCW was mopping the floor with WWE," Heyman wrote about Austin, "On this September night in Philadelphia, Austin could not be distracted. He watched everyone's interview with an intensity that most people only reach during the height of a match. Austin wasn't just determined to do the best interview of the night, he was driven."

 

Heyman, who managed Austin in WCW in the early 1990's, recalls Austin was held back by an industry that just didn't understand how to allow Austin's natural talent to just shine through.

 

"He just needed that one chance, that one time, that one moment to be himself. No scripts from other people's screwed up vision of what he should be. No limitations. No preconceived notions of who he was, or what he was capable of," Heyman stated,  "When he was given that very same chance to be himself just nine months later in WWE, when he was allowed to break free of the limited Ringmaster character and was given the freedom to explore the limitless potential of Stone Cold, Austin did it again."

 

It's a very interesting read, because the blog,which appears on the Sun and www.heymanhustle.com, exposes the thought process behind both Austin, the talent looking to break through in an industry that didn't encourage upward mobility by the young performers for some reason, and the the thought process behind Heyman, recognized as one of that industry's key figures in developing the young talent that others couldn't find the formula for.

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Source and more Austin pics: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/heyman/article947431.ece.