Stone Cold Steve Austin
Real Name: Steve Williams
Hometown: Victoria, Texas
Birthday: December 18
Height: 6’2
Weight: 252 pounds
Finishing Move: Stone Cold Stunner
Career Highlights: WWF Champion (4), Intercontinental Champion (2), Tag Team Champion (3)
There is one, and only one, Stone Cold. The time—1996. The place—Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Steve Austin has just demolished bible-thumping Jake “The Snake” Roberts to win the King of the Ring tournament. In his post-match interview, Austin loudly declares “You’re always talking about your psalms… your John 3:16. Well Austin 3:16 says I just WHIPPED YOUR ASS!” And so a legend is born.
Not only is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin the most popular superstar in wrestling history, but his ascent to the top of the WWF ushered in a whole new era in professional wrestling. His surge in popularity demolished the days of clearly defined heroes and villains. No longer would Hulk Hogan advise the kiddies to take their vitamins. Austin, indeed, is the anti-Hogan—a foul-mouthed, trash-talking, beer-swilling, ass-kicking Texas redneck who flips the bird with gleeful abandon and snorts in the face of authority. If the PTC deplores the morally bankrupt state of wrestling today, they should look no farther than the “Texas Rattlesnake,” because he is where it all began.
Naturally, the four-time WWF Champion has been involved in a number of major storylines over the years. In fact, late 90’s wrestling was all but defined by Austin’s titanic battle of wills with Vince McMahon, the federation’s ruthless and thoroughly immoral owner. McMahon was disgusted by the notion of an individual as reprehensible as Austin representing his company as WWF champion, so he did everything in his power to keep Stone Cold down. Of course, we all know who came out on top in the end. Austin’s single greatest match just may have been his submission battle with Bret “Hitman” Hart at Wrestlemania XIII (a time in which he was a monster heel). Although Austin ultimately lost (he passed out rather than submit to Hart’s Sharpshooter), his colossal effort (his face was literally a mask of blood by the end) marked the beginning of an age in which fans willfully and enthusiastically embraced the “antihero.” The rest, as they say, is history.
