Stone Cold Steve Austin: Randy Orton is one dimensional and his promos need work

You can always count on good old Stone Cold Steve Austin to tell it like it is. He did just that when critiquing the current roster of "superstars" in WWE today in a recent interview with Power Slam:

"Of the other guys, I'm still waiting for Wade Barrett to grab me by the throat and let me know who Wade Barrett is. Daniel Bryan could continue to move up the card. I'm interested to see where Randy Orton goes next. His promos need work, and right now, he's a little one-dimensional. The crowds are digging him, but there's still another step on the ladder for him to climb to."

There was a time when Barrett was poised to break into the main event scene and become a mainstay at the top of the food chain. Except he quickly showed he wasn't quite ready for such a thing and has been relegated to glorified jobber status on Smackdown. Is it his fault? Sure, he holds some responsibility here, but the bookers also shoulder a lot of the blame here.

Bryan will never get over the hump if they keep treating him like garbage because he managed to get over outside of the WWE. It's hard to get behind the guy when Michael Cole is burying him on commentary week in and week out while he's booked to look like the weakest Money in the Bank winner in history.

Austin's comments about Orton are surprising, but also somewhat refreshing. He's solid when he has the stick but where he comes up short is his command of the crowd. He's charismatic but his promos just don't connect in the way Austin's always used to, or guys like The Rock and John Cena's still do.

For his part, Orton responded on Twitter:

"Austin is right, there is still room for me to move up the ladder. And I will. Watch me."

This was also a bit surprising considering how candid Orton usually is when he's on Twitter. That said, how far up the ladder is there for him to go? He's already an untouchable who will always be at or near the top of the card holding or challenging for one of the two major titles.

Or is there actually another level of untouchable for the golden child of WWE to reach? That's a scary thought.