In our opinion, Steve Austin is without a doubt the greatest WWE Superstar of all time. More so than Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena or even Bruno Sammartino, no one has ever been more over with fans, drew more money or brought more eyeballs to the product. However, his voyage to the top wasn't a straightforward one, from his early days in the world famous Sportatorium to getting fired by WCW before finally going on to become Stone Cold.
So, join us today as we take a deep dive into his entire career journey to the top in Bottom Line, The Steve Austin Story. Stephen James Anderson was born on December 18th, 1964 to parents James and Beverly in Victoria, Texas. Stephen was the youngest of four siblings, and it's been speculated by him that the added pressure of having another child was what eventually caused his father to leave them behind when he was only a year old. Soon after this, Steve's parents' divorce was finalized, with what was left of the family relocating to nearby Edna, where his mother would remarry a man named Ken Williams. Changing his name to Steve Williams from then on in, the youngster performed well in school, but what he really excelled at was athletics.
By the time he was ready to leave, he had even been awarded a football scholarship at Wharton County Junior College, and this was later followed by a full scholarship to the University of North Texas. Yes, at 6'2 and with a naturally muscular build, it seemed that Williams was destined to excel in the sporting world, though this would not end up happening in football as he had originally thought. Instead, it was pro wrestling that became his calling.
He had been a fan of the industry throughout his whole life, watching local Texas promotions like Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling and Paul Bosch's Southwest Sports as both a child and a young man. But up until then, He'd never thought of it as a career prospect. This changed when he decided to try it out for himself. In 1989, Steve joined WCCW star Chris Adams Wrestling School in Dallas, where he was trained in the ways of the industry. We say that, but really, the industry's secrets were still closely guarded back in those days, with kayfabe being strictly upheld at all times.
Because of this, when he began learning, he was taught to apply moves as if the fights were real. Legend even has it that the future Superstar was pulled aside and let in on what was really going on. Yes, it's strange to think of today, but back then, many still believed that what they were seeing in the ring was real, and Williams now had a duty to closely guard those secrets, just as his wrestling heroes had before him.
He quickly learned to make everything he did look legitimate and intense, and this was an attitude that would serve him well, seeing him reach the top of the wrestling world about a decade later, but we'll get there soon enough. For now though, he worked for the newly formed United States Wrestling Association, and it was here that legendary Booker Dutch Mantell would give him his gimmick name going forward. In a bid to avoid confusion between the newcomer and Dr. Death Steve Williams, Dirty Dutch decided to call the former Steve Austin instead, naming him after the lead character in the $6 million man. This was something that the future WWE Champion was initially hesitant about doing, though he soon came to embrace it, spending the next few months working in USWA, where he would briefly be managed by Percy Pringle, also known as Paul Bearer, as well as his real-life girlfriend at the time, Jeannie Clark. Clark and Austin would go on to marry a couple of years later, with them eventually having two children together, and when he signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1991, she followed him.
Here, the newlywed started going by the nickname of Stunning Steve Austin, and after only a couple of weeks on the roster, he became the television champion, showing the future that the office saw in him. Now, for those who only know the Rattlesnake through his later brawling style, it needs to be pointed out that he was, at this point in his career, one of the best technical performers out there. He proved this during these early days when he had a series of great matches against the likes of Bobby Eaton, Barry Windham, and Ricky Steamboat.
All while being a key member of Paul Heyman's Dangerous Alliance stable. To many, it looked like he had future WCW Champion written all over him, and this rise to the top continued when he began teaming with Brian Pillman in October of 1992, the two deciding to call themselves the Hollywood Blondes on account of their long, flowing hair. Austin and Pillman had an instant chemistry together, and their interview segments gave the former his first chance to really show how good he could be on the mic. something which would be one of his defining traits later on in his career. The duo also became best friends behind the scenes too, with Steve to this day still regularly being seen wearing a gold chain that Bryan had given him around this time.
As an in-ring unit, they had much success together, and even won the WCW World Tag Team Championships on March 3rd of 1993. Despite this however, the duo were split up after Pillman got legitimately injured that summer. Austin himself has went on to say that he believes the injury was just an excuse for the breakup, and the split likely happened because certain members of the roster were becoming jealous of how over the two were getting, and wanted to nip it in the bud before they became a threat to the other's spot on the roster. Unfortunately, this theme of being held down would continue throughout the rest of the Texans' time with WCW.
He did manage to win the United States Championship from Dustin Rhodes in an excellent 2 out of 3 falls match at December 27th 1993's Starrcade, but that was as high as he was ever going to be allowed to reach. By 1995, whilst at home recovering from a tricep injury, he was actually fired by Eric Bischoff via FedEx, being told then that the company didn't see him as a marketable star. Bischoff has denied parts of this story since, arguing that he fired Austin as he felt he was embellishing his injury status.
But the fact that he couldn't think of a way to turn the biggest draw in the industry's history into a main event figure is damning either way, and would go down as one of the biggest mistakes in that company's long list of them. Just think of how different wrestling would have been had Steve remained with WCW, and rose up to the main event during the NWO storyline. It likely would have killed the competition altogether, if we're being honest.
This didn't happen, however, and now furious with his dismissal. The former Hollywood Blonde went over to Extreme Championship Wrestling instead, where Paul Heyman allowed him to vent his anger in a series of skits that, looking back on it now, were sowing the first seeds of the Stone Cold character. In them, he mocked Nitro for its reliance on old names and for not trusting him to run with the ball. He also had a couple of matches with ECW Champion at the time, Mikey Wiprek, and it's been rumored that after seeing the star he had on his hands, Heyman actually wanted to put the belt on Austin for a period. but that Austin refused this, arguing that he was more effective as the big bully villain being thwarted by the babyface.
With the success he was having in ECW, it wasn't long before Jim Ross and Kevin Nash got wind of what Steve was doing over in Philadelphia, and they took his information to Vince McMahon, convincing him to sign their future Golden Goose to a contract in late 1995. Now in the biggest promotion on the planet, Austin planned to finally prove that he was the star he knew he could be. However, McMahon didn't quite see things the same way, at least not initially. He had the Texan pegged to be an upper mid-card heel named the Ringmaster, who, with the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase by his side, would be able to put on excellent technical matches and get others over, but one that certainly wasn't a main event player. It was an inauspicious start, but during 1996, Steve quickly showed that he was of more value than he had initially been perceived to be, as he had a series of great bouts with Savio Vega, the best of which was their Caribbean Strap Match at In Your House 8 Beware of Dog on May 26th. Following a loss that night, stipulations forced DiBiase to leave WWE, and this allowed Austin to branch out on his own for the first time.
Here, he was finally given more promo segments, and this, combined with his continually impressive in-ring work, began to catch Vince's eye more and more. In fact, the Boss now felt that the Ringmaster gimmick was too limiting for a performer like Steve, and that he needed a rebrand. The idea was then floated that he morph into an assassin-like heel character, one partially based on real-life hitman Richard Kuklinski. Austin was given a series of gimmick names to choose from that included Otto Von Ruthless, Ice Dagger, Fang McFrost, and best of all, Chili McFreeze.
Thankfully, the Rattlesnake's wife, Jeannie, had better ideas. As she was serving her husband a cup of tea one day, she told him to make sure he drank it before it got stone cold. This, it turned out, would be the initial spark that birthed Stone Cold Steve Austin. By the June 1996 King of the Ring, he was ready to make a statement.
Originally, the tournament that year was to be won by Triple H, but as part of his punishment for taking part in the infamous curtain call a few months earlier, this was pushed back. and Stone Cold was given the honor instead. That night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Austin beat Marc Marrow in the semi-final match, busting his lip up in the process. A trip to the hospital and a few stitches later, and he was back at the arena for the finals, where he would be going up against Jake the Snake Roberts. At this time, Jake was portraying a born-again Christian character, and had cut a religious-based promo on the Texan while he was away.
Michael Hayes informed Steve of this when he returned, and so it happened that, After winning the match and the King of the Ring as a whole, Steve walked up the ramp and cut a promo on the fly that would soon go down in history. You sit there and you thump your bible and you say your prayers and it didn't get you anywhere. Talk about your psalms, talk about John 316, Austin 316 says I just whipped your ass. Those were the words spoken by the rattlesnake that night, and it has since been rightly remembered as one of the most iconic promos in the industry.
Almost immediately, Fans started bringing signs to shows reading Austin 316. Steve, of course, was supposed to be the ultimate villain. A cheater who would jump you from behind, then give you the finger as he left your prone body on the mat. This, however, was the start of the late 90s. It was the era of South Park, Marilyn Manson, and Eminem.
The era of the anti-hero. And so the old baby face ways of saying your prayers and taking your vitamins had become passe. Every week, the company tried and tried to push Austin as the biggest heel in wrestling.
And every week, the cheers got louder and louder. This became particularly noticeable at the November 17th, 1996 Survivor Series, where he faced the returning Bret Hart, who had by that point been the paragon of virtue and all that was good in WWE for years. Vince McMahon, who was on commentary that night, was even forced to acknowledge the cheers the villain was getting from the raucous New York crowd.
Austin would end up losing that night, but his star was secured after top brass saw the way fans reacted to him. Around this time, he had also started an on-screen beef with his real-life best friend Brian Pillman, who had recently jumped over to WWE 2, aligning himself with the Hart family in the process. Austin and Pillman took part in the iconic Pillman's Got a Gun angle, during which Steve staged a home invasion of his friend's house, only for Brian to pull out a gun on camera and fire it at an off-screen rattlesnake as the screen went to static. To say that this was controversial was an understatement, and the company felt some blowback for it at the time.
However, if nothing else, it was a sign of the direction they were moving in, a direction that would see Austin at its helm. As 1997 started, Stone Cold continued to grow in popularity. He won the Royal Rumble in January through devious means, but only got cheered louder because of this.
Then, just in time for WrestleMania 13, his feud with Bret Hart had picked up again, as the two were booked to have a submission match. Austin had never been a submission wrestler, and so feared that he and Bret were going to stink up the joint. How little he knew then...
As it turned out that they would go on to have what might very well be the greatest wrestling match ever that night in Chicago. The story was simple. Bret Hart had been the good guy for his entire singles run, only ever trying to do the right and honorable thing.
But now the fans were tiring of this and beginning to turn on him. On the opposite end of the ring was Steve Austin. He was anti-authority, cool, and despite being a bad guy, he was everything they wanted. Brett had come to the decision that his opponent was the source of all his problems, and vowed to prove that, for all his swagger, Steve was a phony. He would do this, he claimed, by making the Texans submit in the middle of the ring.
Austin, for his part, claimed that there wasn't a man or woman alive who could make him say the words, I quit, and that Hart only ever wanted to blame his problems on someone else. Someone had to win, and the future direction of the company itself lay in the balance. When the time came for the bell to ring, Fans watched as a masterclass took place. At one point, you could almost see the tides of history shifting in Austin's favor as he clattered Hart with a chair while the latter was sitting on the top rope, all to the soundtrack of one of the most guttural pops ever heard at a wrestling show.
The ending came with Bret locking the rattlesnake in the sharpshooter, but Austin, who was by this point gushing blood from the forehead, refused to quit, eventually passing out from the pain instead. This finish is now considered by many to be one of the best ever. and the image of Austin's face, screaming in pain and soaked in blood, has gone on to become iconic in its own right. After the match, Hart, now having been declared the winner, continued to beat on his opponent, drawing rapturous boos from the crowd.
As he was eventually taken away and Stone Cold came too, he hit a referee with a stunner, and then walked out on his own merit, refusing anyone's help and receiving a champion's response as a result. The double switch had been executed perfectly. and now Steve was set up to be the ultimate 90s anti-hero. He spent the next few months growing more and more over as fans had now been given permission to cheer for him.
During this time, he became a reluctant tag team champion with Shawn Michaels, and when the Heartbreak Kid was later injured, Mick Foley as well. He also continued to feud with the Hart family, eventually segwaying into a program with Owen Hart, with the two set to battle over the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam 1997 on August 3rd. This was the moment where Stone Cold was supposed to reach the next rung on the ladder to the top, taking the secondary belt home on his way to his eventual goal of becoming the world champion. Unfortunately though, the night ended in disaster when a botched pile driver left Austin temporarily paralyzed. It's still horrifying to look back on even now, and Steve has since gone on to talk about the accident, saying that he initially thought he'd become the next Christopher Reeve, destined to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it first appeared, and after a long couple of minutes, he regained use of his limbs and was able to roll up Owen for the planned victory. After the match, however, it was clear that something was still very wrong. Austin could barely stand up, let alone hold his newly won Intercontinental title above his head, and he had to be helped to the back by a group of officials.
Once he got backstage, he was immediately taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken neck. Because of this, he would be out of action indefinitely, though. Unwilling to pause the momentum he had been building, he remained an on-screen character, giving stone-cold stunners to various authority figures over the next couple of months as they, in storyline, repeatedly denied his attempts to return to competition. In some ways, it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the Texan actually got more popular during this time, with fans desperately waiting for the moment where he would take out the boss himself, Vince McMahon.
That moment came on the September 22nd episode of raw. where Austin got into an in-ring altercation with McMahon, then dropped him with a stunner to an electric crowd reaction. And as the rattlesnake was taken away in handcuffs by the cops, the commentary team even speculated on whether or not he would be fired as a result of his actions.
Of course he wouldn't be, but the next week, Vince would force him to sign a kayfabe waiver saying that he would not hold the company responsible if he returned to the ring and got hurt again. This led to Steve's big comeback at the November 9th 1997 Survivor Series. where he would make quick work of Owen Hart and regain his Intercontinental title. Now though, the days of the technical wrestler Steve Austin were over.
The neck injury had forced him to drastically change his in-ring style and adopt more of a brawling persona. Luckily though, this perfectly fit in with his Man of the People character, and would soon become the default main event style for the company as a whole. Following the Survivor Series, he had a program with The Rock which foreshadowed what was to come for both men. This saw Austin eventually relinquish the IC belt to the Great One after throwing it into the Piscataqua River, reasoning that he had bigger fish to fry at that point and no longer needed secondary gold. That bigger fish, of course, was the WWE title, and on January 18th, 1998 at the Royal Rumble, he won the titular match to earn himself a shot at the big prize at the upcoming WrestleMania 14. In the weeks that followed, he began feuding with then-champion Shawn Michaels and his D-Generation X stablemates.
Austin also took part in one of the most famous moments in Raw history when he interrupted Mike Tyson, who was being brought in as the special guest enforcer for the title match, and got in his face, giving him the finger and starting a brawl which led to Vince McMahon irately telling him that he had ruined everything. After this, McMahon's kayfabe distaste for the Rattlesnake continued to grow. It got so bad that after being cornered by Kevin Kelly in an interview, he even admitted that he did not want Austin as the champion, as he would be a corporate nightmare.
Well, as it turned out, whether the Boss wanted it or not mattered little, because Steve was able to beat HBK at WrestleMania on March 19th, 1998 to become the WWE Champion for the first time. Holding the belt aloft as Jim Ross screamed that the Austin Era had begun on commentary. With the help of the new eyeballs brought in by Mike Tyson's involvement, and the developing Austin McMahon feud, WWE skyrocketed into a level of mainstream popularity unheard of since the peak days of Hulk Hogan a decade previous. You couldn't walk down the street in 1998 without seeing someone wearing an Austin 316 t-shirt, or overhearing people talk about what had happened on Raw that week. It became one of those rare times when wrestling not only became acceptable to tell your friends about, it became cool.
And as the man during this period, Stone Cold would become the biggest draw in the history of the industry. He was a pop culture icon and the most famous wrestler on the planet. All things which, in storyline, infuriated Vince McMahon, who as the evil Machiavellian boss was doing everything he could to wrestle the belt away from the champ through a series of hand-appointed challengers such as Mick Foley and Kane. Week after week, fans all over the world were able to live vicariously through their hero as he outsmarted and made a fool out of McMahon.
Some of the most memorable moments involved Austin filling the boss's car with cement, causing him to urinate himself on live TV, and maybe most famously, giving him and the rest of his corporation cronies a beer bath after driving a Coors truck down to the ring. If you weren't a fan of wrestling during this time, then it's impossible to overestimate just how over the Rattlesnake was. The reactions he got every week dwarfed what would be considered huge nowadays. For an example of this, go back and watch the January 4th, 1999 episode of Raw, and wait for the moment he comes out to help Mick Foley win the title at the end of the show.
If that's not the loudest pop in wrestling history, then we don't know what is. Of course, he couldn't beat the boss forever, and it was at Breakdown, In Your House, in September of 1998, where the evil McMahon was finally able to wrangle the belt from his foe, after putting him in what was effectively a handicap match against The Undertaker and Kane. Austin would not take this lying down, however, and continued to take his ire out on his employer over the next few months, eventually managing to regain the number one contendership spot after obliterating Vince in their long-awaited one-on-one encounter inside a steel cage at February 1999's St. Valentine's Day Massacre pay-per-view. Now, he had a date with The Rock at the following month's WrestleMania 15. Despite being a heel, the Great One's popularity was soaring so high by this point that he was threatening to overtake even Stone Cold, and so this became the most anticipated match the company could possibly put on. When it finally took place on March 28th, the Texan was able to regain the belt he had been screwed out of, however, and prove that he was still the man.
Following this, he continued his feud with the McMahons, at one point even briefly becoming the kayfabe CEO of WWE. And taking part in some of the funniest vignettes you're ever likely to see, as he showed up at Titan Towers in a leather vest, cut off jean shorts, and a tie to hold drinking competitions at a board meeting and fill Vince's office with cow manure. After this, he finally put the McMahon-Austin rivalry to bed when he beat the boss's surrogate, The Undertaker, in a first blood match to send Vince packing from WWE TV forever. Spoiler, he would be WWE Champion by the end of that summer.
Still. Even if McMahon did return to TV, the program would pretty much be done after this, as Austin would soon have to take time off to get neck surgery, the problems that had started when he broke it two years prior now reaching a point that had become unmanageable. At the 1999 Survivor Series, he was temporarily written out of WWE when an unseen assailant ran him over in a car. This led to Steve disappearing for much of the next year, as he recovered from his operation. Now, you would think that at the company's mainstream height, having their biggest star be forced to take a year off would be disastrous, though thankfully The Rock was waiting in the wings to pick up the ball, and become the new interim face of the company in the meantime, effectively replacing the Rattlesnake.
During this time off, Austin even made a brief return to help The Rock win the WWE title at April 13th, 2000's Backlash pay-per-view, even taking the opportunity to sow the seeds of the eventual showdown between the two supernovas in the post-match. This would, however, be a one-off for the time being, and he wouldn't properly come back until September of that year, at which point he began an investigation into who had run him over all those months prior, climaxing in one of the most disappointing reveals in WWE history, where Rikishi admitted to being the one who had committed the act, killing the Angle so dead that the company had to then retcon it a few weeks later to say that Triple H was always the real mastermind behind the whole thing. None of this could do anything to quench the pent-up fan support for the Rattlesnake though. They quickly moved on from this, and began waiting for him to reclaim the top prize once again.
And at the 2001 Royal Rumble match, maybe the best of all the Rumbles, Austin gave these fans what they wanted when he won it for a record third time, to book himself a slot in the main event at WrestleMania 17. It was the match that everyone was waiting for. Austin Rock 2. WrestleMania 17 has since been described as the peak of the Attitude Era, the crowning moment where everything and everyone that had made this period great came together to put on a perfect wrestling show. And this is probably true, but none of it would have been the same had it not been for the ultimate main event between arguably the two biggest babyfaces in wrestling history having a showdown to see who truly was the best.
That night on April 1st, 2001, in front of a chaotic Texas crowd. Steve Austin was treated like a mess-ionic figure as he came out to the ring. The match itself was a five-star classic. However, it's most memorable now for the ending, where in truly controversial fashion, Stone Cold did the unthinkable and turned heel, aligning himself with his old enemy Vince McMahon to once again become the champion. The reason for the turn was that Austin felt his character had peaked as a babyface, and he needed to change things up.
There was an argument for this being true, but you certainly wouldn't have known it that night. as the crowd cheered for him like a conquering hero regardless, and in the weeks that followed, they continued to rain love down upon him. This was until it became clear that he wasn't going to turn babyface again, and they started to turn away. It was a decision that effectively ended the boom period, with popularity never again reaching the same level that it had during that four-year period. Steve has since referred to that decision to turn heel that night as one of the biggest regrets of his career, and has said that if he could do it over again, he would have remained face.
Still though, for as much as this period is maligned, he put on some of his most entertaining work during it, as he began portraying an unstable lunatic prima donna who desperately craved McMahon's approval at all costs. He introduced a lot more comedy elements into his character here, and even gave birth to the What chant that has gone on to become the bane of every wrestler trying to cut a promo in the years since. He briefly returned to the side of the good guys when the old Stone Cold returned to save Team WWE in the lead-up to that July's Invasion pay-per-view, but it didn't last as he then immediately turned his back on them again to join the Alliance, further denying the fans what they wanted.
That being said, he, and the rest of the company, couldn't ignore these demands forever, and when the Invasion angle ended at that year's Survivor Series, Austin quietly turned face once again, almost becoming the first ever Undisputed Champion in December 2001, before he was screwed out of this by Booker T. This led to some memorable segments between the two, including, but not limited to, their hilarious supermarket brawl. But comedy was no longer at the forefront of what fans wanted from Austin. They wanted to see the badass Texas Rattlesnake they had first fallen in love with, and that returned as he entered into a feud with the incoming NWO in February 2002, after they cost him another shot at the undisputed title. This program climaxed at WrestleMania 18 a month later in an underwhelming match between Austin and Scott Hall, which saw both men slotted firmly in the middle of the card. That had not been the original plan of course.
Steve was originally scheduled to face the returning Triple H, however he vetoed this, worrying that he would be playing second fiddle to the game, who was riding his biggest wave of fan support to date. When the NWO came in, there was also discussion of having the dream match of Stone Cold Vs Hulk Hogan. However, Steve turned this down too, fearing that the notorious politician Hogan would play games with him and overshadow him on the night. Instead, Triple H faced Chris Jericho, and Hulk Hogan had an iconic showdown with The Rock, leaving Austin something as an afterthought. It would have been unthinkable even a year prior, but it looked like WWE were ready to phase him down the card to make way for the likes of newcomers such as Brock Lesnar.
Steve evidently felt slighted by this, and it's easy to see why. Sure, his popularity was no longer at the insane peaks it had been in 1998, and injuries were beginning to slow him down, but he was still the biggest star in the industry. His frustration continued to build until the final straw came when he was asked to lose to Lesnar in an unadvertised King of the Ring qualifier on an episode of RAW in June 2002. Austin had no problem losing to Brock, of course, but he argued that if someone of his level was going to do so, the match should be promoted as a big deal beforehand.
As a result of this, he didn't show up to TV that night, and ended up walking out on the company for almost a year in protest. He didn't come back until February of 2003 in fact, at which time it quickly became apparent to him that he only had one more big match left in the tank. The wear and tear had finally caught up with him. It wasn't announced as such beforehand, but his third and final WrestleMania match with The Rock at WrestleMania 19 on March 30th, 2003 ended up being Stone Cold Swansong too.
And to this day, he is one of the very few wrestlers who has never come out of retirement and returned to the ring. To be honest though, this is probably for the best. While we would all love to see it, we also know that if he ever did come back, it could never be the same, and that the aura of Steve Austin has been protected for all these years largely because he's remained in retirement.
Sure, he's continued to make appearances for WWE over the years. He was Raw's Sheriff for a time in 2003 and 2004. and since then he's shown up from time to time to deliver a stunner to some poor unsuspecting victim. As he's spent more and more time away from wrestling though, he's been able to move into other ventures, taking on a few notable acting roles, as well as becoming something of a pioneer in the wrestling podcast game, and more recently, starting his own reality game show, The Broken Skull Challenge. When all is said and done though, his legacy will be what he did in the ring, because quite frankly, no one can come close to what he achieved.
When the Rattlesnake was at the top, wrestling was bigger than it had ever been, and a lot of that was down to how good he was and how over he became as a performer. With his anti-hero character, it changed the way that wrestling babyfaces would be portrayed for the rest of time. And even to this day, the name Steve Austin is synonymous with wrestling, perhaps even more so than Hulk Hogan. So as we move into a new year, crack open a Steveweiser and raise a middle finger to 2020 in honor of the best to ever do it, because there will never be another Steve Austin, and that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so. Well guys, what did you think of the video?
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