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Stone Cold Steve Austin |
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 Stone Cold Steve Austin
He eventually signed on with World Championship Wrestling as "Stunning" Steve Austin, making a major name for himself as a member (with Brian Pillman) of the Hollywood Blonds, a heel tag team that became one of the most famous teams of the early 1990s. However, WCW management, especially Eric Bischoff, did not think highly of his potential. First, the Hollywood Blonds were broken up at the height of their career as a team; later, Austin was arguably held back from a place in WCW's upper level of singles wrestlers. Eventually, Bischoff fired Austin over the phone while Austin was recovering from an injury. Austin felt offended that Bischoff did not notify him in person, since WCW's Atlanta headquarters were a short drive from where he was staying.
After leaving WCW, he briefly went to Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he began to develop the Stone Cold gimmick that would make him famous. In late 1995, Austin joined the then-WWF, but was given a gimmick that made it difficult for him to catch on with fans. Not liking his ring name of "The Ringmaster", Austin asked WWF writers to come up with a new name for his character that would suggest a cold-hearted persona; according to legend, the writers suggested "Chilly McFreeze". Austin then came up with the name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, reportedly after his then-wife Jeannie advised him to drink his tea before it became "stone cold".
His rise to superstardom began in 1996, when he was booked to win the WWF's King of the Ring tournament. In the final match, he defeated Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who was then incorporating a Christian message in his gimmick. After the match, he cut a promo (made a promotional interview) which mocked Jake: "You sit there and you thump your Bible and say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere! Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16... Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!" Austin 3:16 instantly became one of the most popular catchphrases in wrestling history.
Interestingly, he was not originally intended to win the tournament; the WWF originally booked Hunter Hearst Helmsley (now Triple H) to win. However, the WWF changed its plans a few weeks before the pay-per-view because of the MSG Incident (for more details, see Clique).
The following year, he began an in-ring feud with WWF owner Vince McMahon that helped lead to the WWF's final victory over WCW in their war for the pro wrestling marketplace and catapulted Austin to mainstream recognition arguably matched only by Hulk Hogan in the mid-1980s. In fact, at the peak of Austin's popularity, the WWF's sales of Hogan-branded merchandise during Hogan's mid-1980s prime were dwarfed by its sales of Austin merchandise. Austin was even cast in recurring roles on two TV series: MTV's animated Celebrity Deathmatch, and CBS' Nash Bridges. Austin controversially won the 1997 Royal Rumble Match after already being eliminated and then sneeking back into the ring unnoticed to eliminate Bret "Hit Man" Hart. This was the start of a bitter feud between Hart and Austin, with a memorable match at WrestleMania 13. At SummerSlam 1997 he suffered a near-paralyzing neck injury as a result of a botched piledriver by Owen Hart. Austin went on to win his first WWF Championship in 1998, defeating Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV. Towards the end of 1998 and throughout 1999, Austin got caught up in a vicious feud with The Undertaker. However, his body had begun to wear out in the late 1990s, with Austin having to wear braces on his knees and the lingering effects of that SummerSlam 1997 neck injury, plus years of wear and tear, forcing him to undergo serious spinal fusion surgery in late 1999. When it was learned by the WWF that Steve needed the surgery and a year away from action, Austin's injury was staged as a hit-and-run incident at Survivor Series 1999. Austin would not wrestle for 11 months after the surgery.
He made a successful wrestling comeback in October 2000 to avenge his on-screen storyline hit-and-run attacker. On April 1, 2001 at WrestleMania X7, Stone Cold Steve Austin made one of the most shocking heel turns ever, barbarically dismantling The Rock with a steel chair for the WWF Championship and aligning himself with his long-time enemy, WWF boss, Vince McMahon and Triple H, coining a new popular catchphrase, "What?!" However, Austin walked out on WWE in 2002. He later admitted that he has never fully recovered from his injuries, especially his nagging knee injuries and the neck injury, and that he was frustrated with the booking of his character. Several months later, he returned to the WWE, mainly in a non-wrestling role.
In recent WWE storylines, he was a co-general manager for WWE RAW, alongside his old WCW nemesis Eric Bischoff (Outside the ring, the two have largely settled their differences). In earlier angles, Austin also had a stint as CEO of WWE. On November 16, 2003, Austin was "fired" as co-GM of RAW as the result of a stipulation in a match at WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view. He sat out for several weeks to "sell" the angle, but returned to WWE television before the end of 2003, when he was part of a WWE Christmas special taped in front of U.S. troops in Iraq. On December 29, 2003, he returned to regular WWE television as the "Sheriff" of RAW.
On April 17, 2004, the WWE put out a press release on their website claiming that Steve Austin and the WWE were unable to settle contract disputes and parted ways. It is unclear where Austin's career will go from here. Reportedly, the contract dispute was about WWE's control of Austin's non-WWE projects. Another issue that may have influenced WWE in its decision is Austin's recent history of domestic violence incidents. In November 2002, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge [1] (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/stonecoldplea1.html) after striking his then-wife during an argument. [2] (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/stonecold1.html) Police in San Antonio, Texas are currently investigating charges that he threw his current girlfriend to the ground during a domestic dispute on March 24, 2004.
Austin can no longer use "Stone Cold" to promote himself as that name is trademarked by the WWE and has had to correct many in interviews to ensure they do not refer to him by that moniker.
Ironically, three of the WWE's biggest stars, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg, who were all in the same match at Wrestlemania XX (Austin being Special Referee) left the company shortly thereafter. Their depature was a major blow to the WWE.
On January 19, 2005, Steve Austin and Vince McMahon held a press conference to announce an agreement for a three picture deal with WWE Films.
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