[1990-06-16-USWA-Championship Sports] Interview: Steve Austin & Jeannie Clarke

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Austin is on his way to the top! Jeanne calls Toni an unfit mother and manages to insult quite a few women without taking a breath. She has a clip from the National Examiner that she never bothers to explain.

[PeteF3]

Austin is getting better on the mic, though he's not really comfortable when it comes to spinning a yarn--he's better interacting with the crowd or abusing Craig Johnson. Jeannie reminds the women watching that she doesn't get her dresses from Kmart or Target, and asks how they feel when they look in the mirror and see what they ate for breakfast hanging off of them.

[soup23]

I am really loving Jeannie as being a bitch that the women want to see get hers. I didn't get the National Enquirer tie in though.

[Kevin Ridge]

Austin does a good promo detailing previous match with Adams and Toni’s involvement. Jeannie makes fun of Toni’s clothes and that Chris is probably cheating on her. Jeannie was in the National Examiner but they don’t do a close up so she may have just been full of it.

[Cox]

I like how Austin still puts over Adams' wrestling school while still cutting a promo on Adams. Jeannie is so great at this uber-bitch role. I bet she was getting death threats.

[garretta]

Another good promo, but I didn't like that Austin claimed that he pinned Adams clean when everyone watching knows that he didn't. That may be part of the How to Be a Heel handbook, but it turns me off every time I hear it, no matter who does it.

 

The only thing really wrong with Austin and Jeannie is that they don't put each other over. Most heels put their managers over at least occasionally on promos, no matter how egotistical they may be, but Austin and Jeannie's segments feel entirely separate, because they only mention each other in passing. I get that they're both rookies and need to work on a lot of things, but this is really noticeable to me. To be fair, Toni's guilty of the same thing.

 

I promise not to beat this into the ground, but did anyone notice the smile on Craig's face as Austin and Jeannie came into camera range? That's the used-car salesman fake smile I talked about in an earlier thread. He has a long, long way to go as a wrestling announcer, and he's in over his head as the main voice of a major promotion.

[drew wardlaw]

Wow Jeannie letting loose on Toni. I've said it before, but Austin and Adams have totally taken a back seat to the women here, they are on fire.

[GSR]

Austin is not impressed with Craig Johnson’s long drawn out question that he didn’t really understand, but he doesn’t need to ask him any questions anyway because he knows what he wants to say. He says that last night he had a match with ‘Gentleman’ Chris Adams, but he’s a bit confused as to why he calls himself the ‘Gentleman’? After he defeated him in the middle of the ring, he goes and gets a steel chair with the intent of putting him out of wrestling. He’s only just started wrestling and the ‘gentleman’s’ going to try and put him out? He turned the tide though and gave him the beating of a lifetime with that chair. While they were playing musical chairs, his wife came out with a kendo stick and tries to beat up Jeannie! He’s tired of her interfering, and when Jeannie rolled into the ring to get away from her, he took that kendo stick off Toni and Jeannie beat her to within an inch of her last breath. Jeannie says what a wonderful time she had last night and even though Chris and Toni cheated, they still came out on top. She tells Toni that she shouldn’t be here in the first place, she should be at home taking care of her children and is in fact an unfit mother. She’s also going to start sending her the bills for some of her beautiful dresses, even though she can afford to go out and just buy some more. Jeannie is carrying a copy of the National Examiner which features a photo of herself and says how great she is before asking Toni how her ribs are.

 

Interesting point from garretta about Steve and Jeannie’s interviews feeling separate. It’s something I hadn’t picked up on before, but he’s spot on. I’ve already watched the Austin vs Khris Germany match that is next in this feud and I was keeping an eye out for it there. It’s very much like Steve has been instructed to cut his promo, then Jeannie hers. That feeling is not helped by the fact that Austin usually walks off camera after he’s said his piece. Maybe if he just stood beside Jeannie instead it wouldn’t feel this way? There is just no interaction between them, it’s all very regimented. Compare them to say Bobby Heenan and one of his protégés and you can clearly see the difference. I still think the two of them are great, but just something that I hadn’t spotted until it was pointed out.

[dawho5]

Jeannie really impresses as a complete bitch. Austin ragging on Johnson's rambling question is kind of a glimpse into the future.

[El-P]

I second, third or whatever how great Jeannie has been in her über-bitch role. She's got presence, she was good with the kendo-stick the previous week, she can cut a promo. Watching this, it's a head scratcher why WCW didn't use them better from the get-go, I don't think Jeannie cut one significant promo over there.