Forgiven: One Man's Journey from Self-Glorification to Sanctification (33 page)

But on the other hand, please don’t tell me it was a “group” of writers who were responsible for the success. After my departure, the pr mannequin at Titan sports said, “Vince Russo was one of a team of writers . . . blah, blah, blah.” I have no reason to lie to you — there was no team — it was me writing a show (first alone and then with the help of Ed Ferrara, a former Hollywood television writer who was everything I wasn’t — he could spell and use much bigger words), and handing it to Vince. So yeah — I’ll give others credit all day long, but give me my props, too. Like I said, put Al Pacino in
Monkeybone
, and you’ve still got . . .
Monkeybone!

Anyway, after Austin defeated Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania xiv, Vince gave me the order: “When at tv — mirror Steve 24/7. He is your priority. Be there for him at all times, nothing else is as important.” And that’s what I did. Those early stages with Steve as the new wwf Champion were vital. Vince knew then that he had something special on his hands, and he wanted the situation treated accordingly.

I spent a lot of time with Steve during that period — yet I never got close to him. Personally, I didn’t make a habit of becoming friends with the talent, because, as I’ve said, I learned early on there are no friends in wrestling — only “business associates.” But behind the curtain, Steve 234

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let few, if any, people in anyway. He kept to himself more often than not and he just preferred it that way. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t introverted at all — he even played the role of class clown at times —

he had a great personality, his smile would light up the whole arena.

What I mean is, he never really let you get close. But there was one occasion where I saw a different side of Steve.

Austin rarely showed emotion — he just wasn’t a huggy-feely kind of guy. But I’ll never forget the day after Owen Hart passed away —

Steve could tell I was distraught. Man, I wrote the story. I’d written down on paper: “the Blue Blazer descends from atop the arena.” I’ll get more into that tragic day later, but Steve came over to me and said, “Don’t blame this on yourself — it wasn’t your fault.” Then he walked away. Coming from Steve, that meant a lot. I’m certain he doesn’t even remember it — but it was something I’ll never forget.

Steve Austin knew the Stone Cold character better than anyone. It was his alter ego, his baby. So when Steve told you he “didn’t feel it,” you usually moved on to something else. When in the zone, Steve was awesome. Yeah, it’s a stupid word to use, but I can’t think of a better one. He just had it all. The one thing I respected most about Steve is that no matter how big he became, he worked every match as if it were his last. His work ethic was through the roof.

Sometimes it became a nightmare — but it’s also totally understandable — Steve always wanted to know every aspect of his story line for the upcoming week. He wanted to be sure that every detail, down to the smallest thing, made sense. On occasion I became frustrated by this, because if you pick a story apart long enough, you’re going to find something wrong with it. And sometimes Steve did that.

The fact is, many times he drove even himself nuts. But I respected and understood that about him. It was a big part of what made that character so successful.

Steve got so much, so fast, that I think, in time, he became paranoid — always thinking that it could all end in a heartbeat. In my opinion, that’s why he dissected everything. It had taken him a long time to get to the top, and now that he was there, he wanted to be sure 235

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he wasn’t leaving before he was ready. But whether he was the Ringmaster or Stone Cold, our relationship never changed; that’s one thing I learned from my experience with Steve Austin: treat everybody like they are the top star — because some day they might be.

One other thing about Austin — he was the most stubborn sob I’ve ever meet. And if you crossed him once, you were dead in his eyes. Austin never forgave Owen Hart for dropping him on his head and causing a severe neck injury. Regardless of how bad Owen felt, or how many times he apologized over the miscalculated move, Steve wouldn’t let it go. Again, with that sense of paranoia the business creates, Austin no doubt felt it was intentional. Then there was Jeff Jarrett’s in-ring promo, where Double J made a disparaging remark about Austin’s 3:16 T-shirts. Even though Jeff was a heel and actually putting over Austin’s T-shirts (if a bad guy tells the fans not to buy or support something — they will), after Jeff ’s comments, Steve was waiting for him on the other side of the curtain. He proceeded to cut into him, feeling that Jarrett was hurting T-shirt sales (the boys make a profit from their merchandise). I could understand how Steve viewed it at the time, but he never forgave Jeff, and went as far as refusing to ever work with him again. And, maybe with the exception of Shawn Michaels, nobody could make Vince cave like Austin. If Steve didn’t like it, whether he had a valid reason or not, Vince would change it. I once got into an argument with Vince — telling him that no one star is bigger than the wwf. Hogan wasn’t, Shawn wasn’t, Bret wasn’t and Austin wasn’t either. But Vince never listened — he would cave anyway.

Still, I have to say it was a privilege working with Steve during that time. It was special — an experience that cannot and will not ever be repeated.

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Chapter 42

BREAK IT DOWN

With one piece of the puzzle now in place — it was time to create the others. Shane McMahon had a lot to do with bringing the idea of

“Degeneration X” to fruition.

Degeneration X was the name of an upcoming wwf pay-per-view.

At the time Vince and I were trying to come up with something to combat wcw’s nwo. We realized that as much as the nwo was over at the time, you were talking about three guys — Nash, Hall and Hogan

— who were probably already past their prime. On the other hand, as Vince said, we had “the real deal” — young lions who could go.

Three spots of dx were immediately cast — Shawn Michaels, Paul Levesque (a.k.a. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley), and his partner in crime Joanie Laurer (Chyna), who were connected through a story line.

Probably more than anybody else, those three represented what was cool and hip in American culture at the time — in-your-face, screw authority, do what you want to do when you want to do it. Plus, all 237

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three personalities had a real sense of the business. They knew what the fans wanted and were ready to deliver it.

Just a side note: I’ll never forget Jim Cornette sitting at Vince McMahon’s dining room table and making the statement — “Triple H will never draw a dime in this business.” No, Jim, he hasn’t drawn a dime, he’s drawn a
billion dimes!

We would go with the duo of Shawn and Hunter for a while, but our immediate plans were to add two more guys to round out the group. It was Vince who suggested Road Dog Jesse James (Brian Armstrong) and Bad Ass Billy Gunn (“Kip” Sopp). I’ve got to be honest — I just didn’t see it. Vince, however, did. He sold me on the idea

— even though he didn’t need to — and we had the final line-up for dx. During those early months, Shane McMahon, then in his mid-20s, brought a lot of energy to the project. He was the same age as the demographic we were looking for — and hip to what was going on.

Shane was instrumental in bringing the whole concept together —

from the look, to the music, to what they wore, to their ring entrance.

His excitement really got me hooked into the concept.

Another little-known fact. . . . As I’ve said, we started with Shawn and Hunter, and slowly but surely dx started to catch on. But what really pushed it to the next level was the catch phrase, “Suck it!” The million dollar motto was never really planned. One day Shawn was walking down the aisle towards the ring with dx music blaring in the background. On his way towards the ring Shawn kept mouthing the words, “Suck it, Suck it, Suck it,” while chopping his crotch. It was another Austin 3:16 moment for me — I knew he had something.

But really, the little-known fact I was talking about is this: as the gimmick started to get over, Shawn and Hunter were skeptical about putting Billy and Road Dog in the group. They were mid-carders at the time, and the main-eventers were afraid of being brought down.

So, the New Age Outlaws were born. The plan was to build Road Dog and Billy as a team first, get them over and then marry them to dx.

The plan worked like a charm. But then again, with the personality of B. G. James (Road Dog), how could you not get yourself over?

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All of those successes were cooperative, with Vince and I creating the situations, and the talent doing the rest to pull it off. At that time everybody stepped up to the plate, and everybody was hitting Barry Bonds–type home runs. dx was over — but now we needed something to help put them over the top.

To me, it was a no-brainer. I firmly believe that when you are number one, ignore number two. Act as if they don’t exist. However, when you’re number two and you’re doing the chasing . . . throw everything you’ve got at the top dogs. My idea for Vince: let’s declare war on wcw.

Let’s go right after them publicly. Let’s pull out all the stops.

The rest is history.

• • •

Last night I brought my kids to see Tenacious D.

Man, I’ve got to tell you — Jack Black and Kyle Gass are two of the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen. If you don’t know who they are, Jack Black is an actor who recently played the lead opposite Gwenyth Paltrow in
Shallow Hal
, and Kyle Gass is an amazing fat, bald, comedic genius who can tear the house down with an acoustic guitar. Think about that — in the year 2002 a fat, bald guy with an acoustic guitar is tearing down the house! But that’s just it — the D

is a gimmick. They know it, they play it and the fans eat it up.

Today, however, my question: why were Will and VJ the only two kids in the house? Is something wrong with me? Or is something wrong with everybody else?

Man, parenting is a complex thing. How do you know whether or not you’re doing a good job? You’ll find out 10 years from now, but by then it may be too late. What is the right way, and what is the wrong way to raise a child? My philosophy is so different from a lot of people I know — especially here in Hickville. I believe in exposing my kids to everything and then letting them make the decision. I don’t know — I guess being a creative guy I strongly believe in freedom of expression. I don’t believe in shielding my kids from the real world.

Hell, there’s a lot going on out there, and sooner or later, they are 239

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going to be exposed to life. I don’t want to draw them a Dr. Seuss cartoon just to have them find out that the Cat in the Hat is really Fritz the Cat — and he’s out there pawing every animated feline he can get his claws on!

Is this wrong?

I don’t know. I treat my boys with respect; I think they’re old enough to handle it. I just believe in allowing them to be individuals, letting
them
decide who they are — not me. Amy and I go toe-to-toe over it, but I’d rather they be exposed to what’s really out there.

Man, here in Atlanta it’s so backwards. It seems that here in the South they want all the kids to be cut out of the same mold, with the same values, principles and goals. I
despise
that. Sure, you set boundaries for your children, but then you have to take off the leash and let them explore. If you’ve raised your kids the right way, with the right principles, they will remain within your guidelines, even when you give them the freedom to more or less find their own way.

Here I go playing Dr. Phil again. Kids want what they can’t have —

plain and simple. The more things you make forbidden, the more they’ll want to explore those things. If you don’t make it a big deal, it won’t be a big deal.

Was something wrong with me . . . or everybody else?

Why are we programmed to think something is always wrong with

“everybody else”? Here I was bringing my 11 year old to a curse fest (though comedians, the D used vulgar language and sexual content in spades to get a laugh). There are no other kids in sight, and I think something’s wrong with everybody else?

You know, even though I’ve been saved for more than a year now, I still believe in letting your kids be exposed to the real world. Why?

Simply because you can’t protect them from it. You may want to, but you can’t. You can’t go to school with them every day, you can’t be with them when they’re hanging out with their friends. There’s just so much that’s out of your control. But back then, I thought I was being “hip” by letting my kids do what they wanted, I thought I’d be the “cool” dad. I put them 240

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in a situation where they’d “find out things for themselves.” Luckily, I didn’t get burned — but it could have been disastrous.

Once God came into my life my kids could see a change. All of a sudden Dad was “different” and they wanted to know why. But something else happened along the way — they liked this new Dad. This new Dad was “cool” and “hip” without even trying to be. Suddenly, without saying much — they had an example to follow. Dad is happy now. We want to be happy — we need to be like Dad.

Today my kids follow Christ, and not only do they have a role model in me, they have the greatest role model of all.

• • •

In my humble opinion, one of the key ingredients to us overcoming wcw was dx’s assault. We sent dx on missions to the cnn Center, arenas where wcw was playing, wcw headquarters — wherever wcw was, we got in their faces and wouldn’t go away. Man, this was an exciting time.

Something of this magnitude had never been attempted. In the past, Vince refused to acknowledge the competition — you
never
mentioned them. But this was a new time — none of the old rules applied. For the first time ever the wwf was second best, and it was time to pull out the heavy artillery, regardless of the consequences.