>>18483103
Vince wanted the WWE to be the big brand everyone came to see, so that he could use writers to create stories which athletic actors could then perform.
The idea was that he and the company would stop being completely dependent on talent getting over. They could simply slot in anyone from the roster to play the part, without having to pay someone the right amount of money to do exactly what they want.
Steve Austin was just the first biggest name to look at that practice and say no. He knew it's bad for the product and wouldn't participate in it, especially since a gung-ho rebel who hates his boss and stomps mudholes into people isn't the sort of character who reads scripts and winks at the marks.
That experience with Austin saying no, packing his bags and leaving was for the better however. It showed Vince that he had to hold this change back and let the veterans / legacy talent who are already over from their work in the Attitude Era just do their own promos their own way, the oldfashioned way.
Incidentally as he did apply the new method to new talent, Vince was inadvertently holding new talent back and keeping them from getting over, because they're there telling a scripted story and when the other guy verbally slams them with an ad lib, they have to simply recite the prewritten answer from the script or they get punished by the office.
