Steve Austin & Al Snow Talk Owen Hart Teaching Lex Luger A Lesson & Luger’s WWE Push

– Al Snow recently appeared on Steve Austin’s Podcast (transcript via wrestlinginc.com), here are some highlights…

Al Snow on Bumping: “Guys aren’t taught,” Snow considered, “and I’m not downing the modern day wrestlers because they’re all amazing, but they’re taught differently in that they’re not taught to take a bump for the guy. They’re taught to give a bump to a guy. And you should never give the bump to the guy. You should do the move and the guy should take the bump for you and make you look like a million bucks.”

Snow On Owen Hart Once Teaching Lex Luger A Lesson: “There’s a story, the best example of that was Owen Hart and Owen was such a cutup.” Snow said, “and it was Owen and Yokozuna working with Davey [‘Boy’ Smith] and Lex Luger. And Lex had made some smart ass remark to Owen about being a big star or something like that, so Owen taught him a lesson. So whenever Davey would get in the ring, Davey would hip toss him and Owen would just go flying. Davey’d tag right out and Owen caught a hip toss from Lex and he would just go over like a ton of s–t. And it finally got to the point where Lex Luger is over there hot. And he comes in and he’s shaking. You don’t bump a guy. The guy takes the bumps for you. He can make you look like a million bucks or he can make you look like a tub of s–t. Yeah, Luger thought he could get over on his own and that basically it was all him and Owen was like, ‘nope, I’m going to show you it’s not’ and he went out of his way to teach him.”

Austin on Lex Luger’s WWE Push: “Lex came in back in the day, I guess it was NWA/WCW surrounded by [great talent], working with [Ric] Flair, The [Four] Horsemen, and tons of talent that really helped him get over. He goes over to New York, they paint up that school bus red, white, and blue, and, hey man, Lex Express, and not so fast, my friend. It did not work, so they’ve got all that. Hell, they’ve got the U.S.S. Whatever, the battleship where he slammed Yokozuna, flew him in on a helicopter. Vince, goddangit, Vince is giving him all the tools in the world to get over. He gives everybody the tools or he gives everybody an opportunity, but he [has] got the rocket strapped to Lex and it just ain’t working.”

Snow On What He Learned in WWE: “It’s all based on experience, where I screwed up, where I made the mistakes, and I think [Austin]’ll understand because [Austin] kept it in your head and I lost track of it and what that is not a job. This ain’t Wal-Mart. You don’t get hired and you don’t get fired. I know they use that a lot, those terms, ‘oh, so-and-so got fired from WWE’. A wrestler can’t be fired. He [has] never been hired. He’s in business for himself. It’s literally the partnership between Vince McMahon and the wrestler. The wrestler, Vince gives you the platform, regardless of what that platform is, whether you are on the top of the card, middle of the card, or bottom of the card, he’s giving you the platform and it’s up to you to create something that Vince can exploit and that he can use to move you up, and both of you, together, make money.”

Snow on Downside Guarantees Making Wrestlers Scared: “I think one of the biggest downfalls in wrestling right now is that Vince gives that downside guarantee.” Snow explained, “a lot of places give a guaranteed contract, but Vince gives you a downside guaranteed contract, and the boys now have something to lose. Now they don’t go out and perform like trying to make themselves an attraction. They perform to try to get themselves over, to move up, and make as much money as they can in whatever time in their prime that they have. They play it safe because they don’t want to upset somebody. They don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings. They don’t want heat and then get fired. What they don’t understand is that they can use that platform to get themselves over even if they get cut from WWE.” Snow elaborated, “you can still go out and make money elsewhere and if they utilize that to get themselves back over and reinvent themselves, much like Matt Hardy, Vince would always bring them back, so he could capitalize on them again and promote them again, so the two of them can make money.”