It turned out to be a fascinating 75 minutes as WWE CEO Vince McMahon sat down with "Steve Austin" for a candid one-on-one conversation on the WWE Network following Raw.
Plenty of things were covered but one of the more interesting subjects was when Austin brought up that the current WWE superstars are afraid to go out on a limb because the WWE is really the only game in town and no one wants to rock the boat or possibly suffer the consequences.
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McMahon made no bones about his thoughts on this, saying that the current locker room lacks ambition like people from Austin's era.
This is a different group of guys and gals -- it's millennials. They're not as ambitious, quite frankly. And they're not trepidatious at all. I just don't think they necessarily want to reach for that brass ring. The last person to really reach for that brass ring, in all likelihood, was John Cena. There are others coming up now who definitely want to reach for it. (Dean) Ambrose is one of them, Seth Rollins is another one, Roman Reigns is another one, Bray (Wyatt) is another one. So I think you've got some people here chomping at the bit to make a difference but when you're walking around backstage you don't hear as much camaraderie perhaps and laughter as in your era. But then again there are some other things they do.
He went on to say:
It's a different point of view. If you reach for that brass ring and you fall on your butt...no one wants to fail and there's this feeling, this insecurity, that if you fail you're exposed. I think that's largely pretty much what it is. Because you give everybody the opportunities, you give everyone resources, which you never had. The things that we do now from a television production standpoint, social media. Oh my god, social media is huge. It helps talent in so many different ways. It gives them the tools that you did not have, and other people like you didn't have. It's the utilization of those tools that's very important for talent to use. And they do use them but not in the way you did.
It shouldn't be a surprise that McMahon -- who loves a good fight -- basically challenged his roster in ths manner. If you want it, go and get it rather than hoping something happens. What is also curious is that of all the things discussed during the interview, this was the one that the WWE decided to make into a video and release on its YouTube page.
This seems to be a clear message from McMahon to his talent: do more, step up and don't be afraid to fail. Now, the argument can be made than McMahon and the creative team need to back off and not script the talent so much. Let them be themselves more so they can truly make it or break it without having anyone else to blame. But it remains to be seen that McMahon will loosen his grip anytime soon.
Brian Fritz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrianFritz and listen to his Between The Ropes podcast on Blog Talk Radio.
