During his recent appearance on Taz’s podcast, WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin talked about the importance of his time in ECW. Here is what he had to say:
“[ECW] was just a great environment at that point in my life. [ECW] was just a hub of so much creativity and guys going through the refining process, trying things out, experimenting, and, of course, guys with great success with real cool gimmicks laying down some heavy stuff. So, it was a great learning process for me and a real eye-opener as far as the creative freedom that Paul E. [Heyman] harbored down there and you were able to do anything that you wanted to do to get over and that doesn’t exist in today’s system. I really value my days down there in ECW in Philly. It was a pivotal time in my career, and I dare say that if I’d not made my stop through [ECW], I don’t know if I’d ever really [become] ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. I always give Paul Heyman all the credit in the world for helping me get to the level [to which] I got.”
You can listen to the entire interview here: