By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

In my blog yesterday, I brought up that I'd put WWE's creative direction in the hands of Steve Austin, based on a chapter in his book. A number of you have emailed asking what chapter or what did he say that impressed me. Here's some details...

-It's chapter 38 in the book "The Stone Cold Truth" published in 2003.

-He opens by saying: "If I ran WWE in a perfect world, I'd take the business back ten or fifteen years. I'm not talking about eliminating the music or the pyrotechnics. I'm talking about the wrestling style, bell to bell. If we change the way I'm suggesting, guys are going to sell the moves more. That means slow down, take less chances, and tell better stories."

I love this opening statement because it gets to the heart of what's wrong with the arguments Steve Corino made this past week trying to rationalize taking stiff chairshots to the head on last Friday's ROH Final Battle PPV. If you know what you're doing, if you're the least bit skilled at your craft, you don't need to take a stiff chairshot to the head to tell a compelling, exciting, dramatic story in the ring. Wrote Austin about the 1970s and 1980s: "(Y)ou worked a safter style then, because the guys were actually better workers. They didn't have to take as many crazy bumps, because they really sold the bumps that were available to them." Amen.

He talked about how the high-flyers came in and "everybody stopped selling the moves" (i.e. spotfests in the X Division or indy division). He astutely noted The Road Warriors came in and stopped selling anything, which was "good for them," Austin notes, but bad for the business. I've long called it the scorched-earth policy.

-Austin then moves on to talk about some specific changes. Number one, he'd go to unscripted promos. Bruce Mitchell and I have talked about this regularly for years on the VIP Bruce Mitchell Audio Show. Here's Austin making the case: "I'd force the guys to use their brains. Make it a spontaneous situation where guys are forced to use their hearts, their heads, and their guts. When someone asks them a question, they wouldn't just be regurgitating some BS written on a piece of paper they had to memorize. I'd like to see WWE go back to being more of a wrestling company and less of a television company doing wrestling." He said he'd give the wrestlers bullet points and some direction and a timeframe, that's all. "But what came out of their mouths would be their feelings, not what they committed memory."

The counter argument to this is that wrestlers are trained to wrestle, not act, and then they're dropped in front of cameras and asked to act. Austin acknowledges that, but said it's about making sure the gimmick a wrestler portrays is close to who they really are. This policy change would require WWE to trust their talent on live television to not freeze or say something completely incompatible with USA Network and sponsor policies. I think, though, if wrestlers can be trusted with the safety of their opponents inside the ring, they can be trusted to avoid certain words and certain phrases or bigoted comments. It's not like scripting has stopped the bad judgment of John Cena when it comes to gay jokes or "poopy" references. Maybe there'd be a lot less bad attempts at humor that fall flat.

-Austin also suggests wrestlers stop rehearsing matches, but instead call them inside the ring. He said back in the day wrestlers had separate locker rooms and the ref relayed the finish of the match to each of them. He said if all decisions about the match are made before they get out there, the wrestlers aren't reacting to the crowd. He thinks wrestlers should be able to improvise during the match based on how the crowd reacts.

From Austin's perspective as a wrestler who worked many territories and for many different promoters and was around wrestlers who worked as far back as the 1970s, he can speak to the benefits better than John Cena or even Triple H, whose careers didn't overlap with as many old-school wrestlers and didn't travel to as many (Triple H) or any (Cena) territories. This has got to be a foreign concept to many wrestlers today, but it was once the way things were done. And, I'd argue, what was once old could be new again. But there are too many people in the industry today who don't know or understand its history and aren't capable of seeing how old ways could work better in today's environment.

-There's more to the chapter, but those are the high points. I would add more myself, and I think Austin would add more suggestions to his list after the changes of the last eight years or so. He also said, "If I'm smart, I won't wrestle again." He then offered himself as a consultant to Vince McMahon and the creative team. He said he could be involved in booking meetings via conference call or work with the head of merchandise or react to ideas they send him. He said he wouldn't be a yes-man for Vince McMahon. He said he'd tell him straight out if something sucks. He said he could help wrestlers develop their characters and critique their matches or interviews right after they return from the ring.

If I were Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn, I'd see if that offer still stands. I think 2012 is ripe for the implementation of the ideas Austin forwarded in his 2003 book. Triple H himself should welcome, not resist, the blunt, unfiltered wisdom of Austin and not feel threatened by it. Austin is a great wrestling mind who should be tapped to steer wrestling in a better direction.

FINAL COMMENTS: Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for visiting PWTorch. Please bookmark our website and visit every day for the latest breaking news and unmatched analysis and perspective on the happenings in the wrestling industry.

Now click here to read my previous blog if you haven't yet: KELLER BLOG: Cornette says WWE in trouble with Triple H instead of Vince McMahon in charge

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Wade Keller launched Pro Wrestling Torch as a print newsletter in 1987. The newsletter is still published every week. It's distributed to thousands of wrestling fans internationally via postal mail and digital PDF's online at the VIP website. He has interviewed some of pro wrestling's biggest power brokers over the years in their longest insider interviews ever done, including Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, Mick Foley, Vince Russo, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Jerry Lawler, and many many others. He writes every week for the PWTorch Newsletter and also blogs on PWTorch.com. He is also the supervising editor of MMATorch, records the Keller Hotline every day for VIP members reviewing and analyzing the news of the day, and hosts the PWTorch Livecast twice a week. Contact Keller: kellerwade@gmail.com.

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