“Stone Cold” Steve Austin knows a thing or two about being charismatic and running your mouth. He arguably did both better than anyone else in pro wrestling history. Austin and many other veterans have for years now been decrying what they feel are the overly-scripted promos that have littered the WWE landscape ever since the Ruthless Aggression Era.
That’s why it may come as a surprise to you that one of Austin’s favorite people on the stick right now is none other than the most hype-making man himself, Mojo Rawley.
On a recent episode of his Unleashed podcast, Austin took a moment to sing the praises of Rawley, who has been making the most of his scant television time over on Smackdown Live.
“Just as far as the charisma of this guy, he’s got something … he’s got a real ease with words and I thought the way he presented them came off as organic as hell. There’s no reason to jump off and say this kid’s going to be the next big star, but to those people trying to cut a promo: watch how easy this guy pulls this thing off. It’s not like he’s been around the horn for a million years, either. He’s only going to get better.”
Sure, Austin didn’t gush or go on at length or anything, but stopping the conversation to give Mojo some props is the real deal from someone as respected and groundbreaking as the Texas Rattlesnake himself.
While the Mojo experiment has taken a huge backseat to the Jinder Mahal experiment, it’s clear WWE thinks very highly of Rawley, or they wouldn’t have booked him to win this year’s Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. (I will pause for a moment so you can insert your snide comment about Cesaro here.) Sure, WWE also definitely loves Mojo’s BFF-ship with Rob Gronkowski, but Rawley has undeniably grown by leaps and bounds ever since forming the Hype Bros with Zack Ryder in NXT.
And now he’s out here using his few minutes on Smackdown to cause Steve Austin to sing his promo praises. That’s not exactly easy to do.
