Few professional wrestlers have ever reached the level of popularity that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin has. Rivaled in name recognition by only Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin was unquestionably the most recognizable pro wrestler in the 1990's, and even became a celebrity on a wider scale through the WWE publicity machine. He has won the WWE World Heavyweight Title six times, the most of any superstar in WWE history (along with Hulk Hogan and The Rock). He revolutionized the entire industry in the mid to late 90's, setting up a framework for matches that are still imitated to this day. He was one of the most respected and revered wrestlers of all-time, able to go hold for hold with Bret Hart, brawl with Mick Foley, and he was the man to help transform Vince McMahon from corporate lackey commentator to the evil owner, Mr. McMahon. He did it all. His place in wrestling history should have been set in stone. However, the tragic conclusion to an amazing career saw the downward spiral of "Stone Cold," one that would leave an imprint on the wrestling world like never before.

Austin began his career in the late 1980's, after being trained by the late "Gentleman" Chris Adams. He wrestled in some southern independents and the USWA, and it didn't take long for him to get noticed. Mick Foley recalls seeing Austin for the first time amongst a crop of rookie wrestlers, and recalls that the one with long flaxen hair just exuded charisma and confidence. That flaxen haired youngster was of course a young Steve Austin. Austin's real name is Steve Williams, but since there already was a famous wrestler named Steve Williams ("Dr. Death"), he decided to change his name, and went with Austin as a nod to his home state of Texas. So Austin toiled around the USWA for a time, but before long WCW came calling, and Austin was an immediate hit.

He defeated Bobby Eaton for the Television championship about two months into his tenure there, and held it for about ten months. He lost it to Barry Windham, but regained it a month later, and this time he held it for about another four months. The second time he lost the title was to Ricky Steamboat at the Clash of the Champions on September 2, 1992, and the two would feud off and on for the next two years. Many say that it was working with wrestlers such as Bobby Eaton, Barry Windham and Ricky Steamboat that helped turn Austin into a great technical wrestler. Austin also spent some time tag teaming with Ravishing Rick Rude, Larry Zbyszko, and even teamed once with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, all of whom are wrestling legends. Austin also joined Paul E. Dangerously's "Dangerous Alliance" alongside Zbyszko, Rude, Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton, and they were the biggest heel group since the Four Horsemen, and comprised one of the biggest WCW storylines of 1992. He feuded with Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, Sting, and Ricky Steamboat on and off for all of 1992, while holding the TV title for most of the year. As 1993 rolled around, another chapter of Austin's career was set to begin.

With nothing for either man to do, WCW paired Austin with Brian Pillman, christened them the Hollywood Blondes and basically told the two men to do whatever they wanted. The two men set the tag team world on fire, doing things promo-wise and wrestling wise that few had seen in either the then-WWF or WCW at the time. The duo quickly captured the tag team titles from Shane Douglas & Ricky Steamboat and they continued to roll for months. One of the most memorable portions of their run as a tag team was their interview show entitled "A Flair For The Old," which was a mockery of Ric Flair's "Flair for the Gold." What could have turned into a huge feud between the Blondes and Flair and Arn Anderson was instead a one time match at the Clash of the Champions on June 17, 1993, in which Flair & Arn beat the Blondes in a two out of three falls match. Even stranger, Flair was willing to help get Austin and Pillman over, but management decided against it for some reason. This was the beginning of Austin's unhappiness with the powers that be in WCW. Austin & Pillman had connected with the audience and had a potentially great program against arguably the biggest star in WCW history, and it was snuffed before it even got off the ground. So the duo continued to defend the titles against all comers, and were still two of the most over heels in the company. When Pillman sustained an ankle injury, Lord Steven Regal was substituted into a tag team title match against Paul Roma & Arn Anderson, who won the titles. Austin then hired Col. Robert Parker as his manager, a move which angered Pillman, and should have led to a big feud. The two had just one match, at Clash of the Champions 25, and Pillman beat Col. Parker in a "loser must wear a chicken suit" match, and that was the extent of the feud. This further angered Austin. To placate their talented star, WCW placed Austin into a feud with U.S. champion Dustin Rhodes. Austin won the belt at Starrcade '93, and would go on to hold it for almost nine months, defending it against the likes of Rhodes, The Great Muta, Johnny B. Badd and Ricky Steamboat. Austin eventually lost the belt to Steamboat at Clash of the Champions on August 24, 1994, and a rematch was set for Fall Brawl '94. Unfortunately, in the preceding Clash match, Steamboat was injured and would not be able to compete in the rematch (or ever again for that matter). So, in one of WCW's less brilliant maneuvers, the title was awarded to Austin, who then lost it to "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 27 seconds. Yes, Stone Cold Steve Austin once lost to Jim Duggan in less than half a minute. Austin and Duggan had several rematches, most of which Duggan won by disqualification. Also around the same time, Austin suffered a tear in one of his triceps, and would be on the shelf for a while. So WCW took the initiative, and fired Steve Austin via Fed-Ex. This was the final straw as far as Austin was concerned. Later on, WCW vice President Eric Bischoff chastised Austin for his "lack of drawing power." All of what happened in WCW would turn out to later be fodder for his ECW and WWF characters, although no one knew it yet.

After recovering from his injury, Austin made his way over to ECW in mid-1995. He feuded briefly with The Sandman and Mikey Whipwreck, and received several shots at the ECW heavyweight title. But what was more notable about his stint in ECW was that Austin started developing the character that would rocket him to fame in the WWF. Austin left his mark in ECW with several memorable segments including his impersonation of Hulk Hogan, as he talked about how he was held down in WCW, and calling Woman a "$5 slut" who was mad because she "married a midget" (referring to Kevin Sullivan, another WCW veteran who Austin says held him back).

So when the WWF came calling, one could assume that Austin would pick right up where he left off in ECW, as the trash talking bad ass. But it didn't quite happen that way. He debuted in November of 1995 as Ted DiBiase's newest protégé, and was given the Million-Dollar belt to accentuate that fact. In addition, Austin never spoke, rather he let DiBiase do the talking. Why the WWF felt that Austin needed a mouthpiece is beyond most wrestling fans, but that was the case nonetheless. In addition to the ridiculous nature of paring Austin with DiBiase, Austin was not called Steve Austin. He was given the moniker "Ringmaster." Fans weren't impressed by Austin, but in all fairness, how could they be? Austin was fed up with this character, and decided to pitch some different ideas to WWF management. He wanted to go by his name Steve Austin, but wanted to have an edgy nickname to go along with that. He was inspired by a documentary he saw on TV about serial killers, and wanted his name to reflect something like a serial killer. He ended up settling on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and management agreed, and made the name change. The next order of business was to get rid of DiBiase as Austin's manager. All the while, Austin was feuding with Savio Vega. Austin beat Vega in a one-on-one match at WrestleMania XII, and a rematch was set for two months later at In Your House "Beware of Dog." It was to be a Caribbean Strap match, and DiBiase volunteered to surrender his career if Austin did not win the match. Austin ended up losing in a great match, but what happened later was sheer brilliance. With DiBiase out of the picture, Austin began to talk for himself, and on an episode of Raw he revealed that he had purposely lost the match to Vega to get rid of DiBiase. King of the Ring was right around the corner, and Austin was to be placed in the tournament. This is when things got really interesting, and the course of wrestling history was changed. The 1996 King of the Ring was to be Hunter Hearst-Helmsley. But the infamous "Klique curtain call" at Madison Square Garden on Kevin Nash and Scott Hall's last night in the company landed Hunter in very hot water. So hot in fact, that his promised King of the Ring push was nixed, and he was instead ousted by Jake Roberts in the first round. So the WWF was looking for another mid-card level heel to put over in the tournament, and Steve Austin fit that bill perfectly. Ironic that the Klique was responsible for Austin's push (albeit inadvertently), because they are more known for holding wrestlers down (see Shane Douglas). Austin beat Bob Holly and Savio Vega in the opening two tournament rounds, debuting his new move, the "stone cold stunner." This put him into the PPV against Marc Mero in the semifinal match. It was an outstanding match and Austin's win put him into the finals against veteran Jake "The Snake" Roberts (ironically the man who eliminated Helmsley earlier in the tournament), who was playing out his real life born again Christianity. Roberts had been injured by Vader in their semifinal match, so Jake was in no condition to compete. Austin was unrelenting, just beating Jake mercilessly. Austin's character was growing by leaps and bounds at this point, and this was another brilliant move. But the real coupe-de-grace was in Austin's post-match interview. He ripped on Jake's born-again Christian tendencies, and made fun of Jake's age. But the dynamo of the interview was when Austin told Jake "you talk about your Psalms, and your John 3:16. Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!" The crowd erupted at the offhand, un-scripted remark by Austin. No one knew what Austin had unleashed on the WWF with that one remark.

But it took a little while. Austin's popularity did not explode overnight, nor did the WWF give him a mega-push, shoving him down the audience's throats. Those two factors are probably key reasons that Austin got as popular and as big as he did. He didn't start getting a big push until the fall of 1996, when the rumors of Bret Hart's return started. Austin began talking about Bret in his interviews, lashing out at one of the WWF's most loved and respected stars of all time. Austin said horrible things about Bret, trying to goad him into returning to the ring. It eventually worked, and Bret was set to return to Madison Square Garden at the 1996 Survivor Series. The two put on a phenomenal match, with Bret just barely eking out a victory. The feud was far from over, but something strange started happening. Fans began to cheer for Austin. It was hard not to, he was just so entertaining. Wrestling fans were looking for something different, and Austin was it. He used foul language, he flipped off everyone in sight, and he beat up anyone who disagreed with him. Oddly enough, since the fans were beginning to cheer Austin, they had to boo his adversary, which was Bret Hart. This was a strange happening, as Bret hadn't been booed since 1988. Both Bret and Austin were placed in the 1997 Royal Rumble, and something explosive was bound to happen.

Austin entered at number five, and was eliminating men left and right, literally waiting for the next entrant. Near the end of the match, Mankind and Terry Funk engaged in a pull apart brawl on the floor, occupying all the referees. So when Bret tossed Austin over the top rope, none of the referees noticed. Realizing this, Austin crawled back into the ring and eliminated Bret, which all of the referees saw, giving the Rumble win to Austin. Bret was furious. But instead of challenge Austin or go after him, he just whined. A lot. The fans didn't want to hear whining, they wanted someone who would take no prisoners, and just go out and whip ass. So Austin was in, and Bret was out. The feud continued raging on, as Bret won his fourth heavyweight title at the "Final Four" PPV. The next night on Raw, Austin cost Bret the belt in cage match with Sycho Sid. Bret whined. And the fans booed. As the boos for Bret increased, the cheers for Austin grew as well. The feud was coming to a head right at the perfect time: WrestleMania. The two men were signed for a submission match, with UFC fighter Ken Shamrock slated to be the referee. It completely set the tone for WWF Attitude, and firmly established Austin as a major star. The match was totally brutal, with the combatants spending a great portion of the match outside the ring, destroying each other with chairs, microphone cords, and the ring bell. It was a perfect mix of brawling and wrestling. Near the end of the contest, with a large cut on Austin's forehead, Bret locked him in the sharpshooter. With blood pouring down his face, Austin refused to give up. Referee Shamrock stopped the match when Austin passed out, but the key point is that Austin never gave up. The fans cheered loudly for Austin's courage. The combination of the fans cheering and Austin not giving up sent Bret into a rage, as he continued to beat on an unconscious Austin. Shamrock pulled Bret off, as the fans serenaded Bret with a rousing chorus of jeers. The double-turn was effectively pulled off, better than it ever had been. Austin was now a full-out face, and Bret was the biggest heel in the company. Amazingly, the feud was not yet over. Bret soon formed the Hart Foundation with his brother Owen, Davey Boy Smith, Brian Pillman, and Jim Neidhart, while Austin continued to refuse help from anyone. Austin received his first WWF Title shot on the "A Cold Day In Hell" PPV, losing to the Undertaker due to the chicanery of the Hart Foundation. The Hart Foundation had many enemies, so some men were forced to work together to fight them off. One of these men was Shawn Michaels, and the two of them ended up winning the tag titles from Owen & Bulldog in a great match on Raw. When Michaels walked out on the WWF for a brief period, Dude Love stepped in as Austin's partner, but nothing ever really came of that. With the Hart Foundation vs. Austin feud in full swing, the WWF set for a PPV in the Hart's home country of Canada. The Hart Foundation teamed together, and Austin was forced to join Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and the Legion of Doom. The match ended when Owen pinned Austin, but little did anyone know how much that incident would end up changing Austin's career, and his life. The following month, Austin was challenging Owen Hart for the Intercontinental Title at Summerslam, when something terribly wrong happened. Owen had Austin up for a piledriver, but when he dropped him down, Austin landed very awkwardly, and was actually paralyzed for several minutes. Austin ended up winning the match and the title, but he would never get to defend it, as the neck injury was too severe to let him wrestle. This was a tremendous blow to both Austin and the WWF, as he was the most popular star, and was still on the upswing. The WWF found ways for Austin to be involved, and this is when he started stunning every authority figure in sight, from Jerry Lawler to Jim Ross to Sgt. Slaughter and even Vince McMahon, who had yet to formally come forward as the owner of the company. Austin made his return to the ring at the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal, won the IC title back from Owen, then forfeited it a month later to rookie Rocky Maivia. Austin, in his own words had "bigger fish to fry," that being the WWF World Heavyweight Title.

His road started at the 1998 Royal Rumble. In the weeks leading up to the event, Austin had managed to stun just about every other participant, making him a severely marked man heading into the event. He still ended up winning the whole thing, setting the stage for a WrestleMania confrontation with the WWF champion, Shawn Michaels. To add more intrigue to the mix, Mike Tyson was named as the special enforcer for the main event, and Austin being territorial, challenged Tyson immediately. Austin was incredibly over at this point, and the timing was just perfect to put the belt on him. With both men at less than 100%, they put on an admirable performance, that of course ended with Austin winning the belt, and moving on to become one of the biggest stars in history, via a feud with the owner, Vince McMahon.

Now at this point, Vince had just recently come out and admitted that he indeed owns the company. It was common knowledge, but it had never been admitted on the air. This came out after the whole Bret Hart/Montreal debacle. In the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, Michael Cole asked Vince McMahon if he wanted to see Steve Austin win the title. Vince responded with a huge "oh hell no!" and the crowed exploded into boos. The feud was kicked into overdrive the night after WrestleMania, and would go on for almost two years. McMahon did everything in his power to try and strip Austin of the title, and the two went back and forth every week. McMahon sent Dude Love, Kane, Undertaker, and anyone he possibly could after Austin, but Austin always ended up on top in the long run. Vince finally got the title off Austin on September 27, 1998, at the In Your House "Break Down" PPV. He sent Undertaker and Kane after him in a "triple threat" match, with the stipulation that Undertaker or Kane couldn't pin each other. They ended up pinning him simultaneously, but the belt was finally off Austin. The next month, Vince forced Austin to referee a match between UT and Kane for the vacant title, and if Austin did not referee the match fairly, Vince would fire him on the spot. So of course, Austin did not ref fairly, and Vince fired him. Vince's son Shane, who had just been introduced to TV at this point, went behind his father's back and re-hired Austin, and placed him in the Deadly Game tournament at Survivor Series for the vacant title. But it was all a giant ruse, as Shane screwed Austin in his semifinal match with Mankind, and Rocky Maivia went on to win the title. To get another shot at the title, Austin first had to beat Undertaker in a buried alive match, just to get to the Royal Rumble, and then win the Rumble itself. To make Austin's path even more difficult, Vince placed himself in the Royal Rumble match. Just to stir the pot, Commissioner Shawn Michaels placed Austin and Vince as numbers one and two, so there would be a guaranteed two minute confrontation. In the end, Vince ended up winning the match, thanks to help from The Rock. But due to a technicality, Commissioner Michaels was able to put the WrestleMania title shot on the line in a cage match for the February PPV "St. Valentine's Day Massacre." It was the first actual one-on-one confrontation for the two, and it was a memorable affair. It wasn't a technical masterpiece, but the crowd was totally into it, and both men worked their ass off. In the end, the Big Show debuted and inadvertently cost McMahon the match, so Austin was on his way to WrestleMania for the second year in a row. And for the second year in a row, Steve Austin achieved arguably the biggest accomplishment in all of sports-entertainment: winning the World title at WrestleMania. Austin was on top of the world.

But his neck was still giving him trouble. He worked through a program with the Undertaker and Vince McMahon, as McMahon was revealed to be the "higher power" that Undertaker responded to. It all ended up with Austin beating the Undertaker in a first blood match, which was supposed to ban McMahon from WWF TV forever. That lasted all of about two months, as Austin consented to letting McMahon back on TV if he could get a title shot. Austin failed in that shot, but was to get another one as part of a triple threat match at the Survivor Series; the match would be Austin vs. Rock vs. Triple H. But before the match could take place, Austin was run down in the parking garage, and was "seriously injured." In actuality, Austin was still experiencing problems from the ill-fated piledriver Owen Hart had given him two years earlier, and was taking time off for surgery. He would be out for almost a year.

When Austin returned at the Unforgiven PPV on September 24, 2000, his first order of business was to find out the man responsible for running him over. After several weeks and several confrontations with Commissioner Foley, Rikishi admitted to being responsible. When the crowd failed to care about that, the WWF went ahead and revealed that Triple H was the man that put Rikishi up to it. The feud with Triple H turned out to be a long one, and culminated in a brilliantly brutal two out of three falls match at No Way Out on February 25, 2001. Austin pinned Triple H in the first fall, which was a regular match, but Triple H went on to win the other two, a street fight and a cage match, respectively. The match was universally praised, and confirmed that Austin was back to 100% in the ring. A month earlier, Austin won the Royal Rumble match, which made him the number one contender heading into WrestleMania, to face The Rock. The match was fantastic, as usual for the two, but this time there was a twist. Austin's mortal enemy, Vince McMahon came down to ringside, and ending up helping Austin get the win, giving Austin his fifth heavyweight title and supposedly turning him heel in the process. This occurrence was supposed to be the biggest storyline of 2001, but it just would not work. The fans would not buy Austin as a heel. Even when he teamed with his other mortal enemy, Triple H, the fans still cheered. They cheered and cheered until the WWF pulled another desperate move: turned Austin against the WWF. At the height of the terribly aborted Alliance angle, the WWF needed to give that group some credibility, and Austin was the man they picked for the job. While that helped temporarily, nothing could really save the WWF writing team from the terrible job they did with that storyline. This is when Austin started his whole "what" routine, and was far more of a coward than he had ever been. In the summer and fall of 2001, Austin engaged in a memorable series of battles with Kurt Angle, who had turned face for the first time due to Austin's heel turn. Angle finally won the belt at Unforgiven on September 23, but Austin regained it on October 8, for a record-tying sixth time.

When the Alliance angle was (mercifully) killed at the Survivor Series on November 18, Austin was back to being a face the very next night, on the side of new 50% owner Ric Flair. Austin would hold the title until December 9, when he lost the WWF/WCW title unification match to Chris Jericho. This could perhaps be seen as the beginning of a large downswing for Austin, as it was the last time he held the title. He feuded briefly with Booker T, was eliminated in the Royal Rumble match, then lost a heavyweight title rematch with Chris Jericho at the No Way Out PPV. This is when the New World Order of Hogan, Hall, and Nash made their return and started up a feud with Austin. This was the real beginning of Austin's discontent with Vince McMahon and WWF management. He was scheduled to work a program with Scott Hall, leading up to a match at WrestleMania X8 from Toronto. Not only did Austin not want to work with Hall, he was upset because he had main evented his last three WrestleManias, and he was taking the demotion a little hard. The reasons Austin did not want to work with Hall were that he felt Hall was irresponsible and unreliable, and doubted whether Hall would actually make it to WrestleMania without getting fired. As a result, Austin refused to make Hall look good in the buildup for the match, which ended up making Austin look worse in the long run. If Austin had cooperated and made Hall look like a credible threat, the whole New World Order storyline could have turned out better, and Austin would have looked better in beating Hall.

But therein lied another problem: Hall was booked to beat Austin, via interference from Vince McMahon, which would in turn set up the roster split (which, of course, ended up happening anyway). But Austin apparently did not want to do the job, which meant that the "brand extension" had no legitimate reason. The night after WrestleMania, Austin did not show up for Raw. He was upset with both the way his character was moving and in how his matches were being booked. He felt less important in the company's eyes, and in a sense, he was. He was still the biggest name on the roster, but other men (Triple H, Chris Jericho, The Rock, Kurt Angle) had stepped forward to claim some of the spotlight as well and this obviously did not sit well with Austin. So to try and placate his troubled star, Vince McMahon made him a "free agent" in lieu of placing him in the draft pool with the rest of the roster. The logic was that Austin would feel more important if he were a sought after free agent, and it worked for a while. Austin ended up signing with Ric Flair to appear on the Raw broadcast, and began a feud with the Undertaker, who was Flair's number one draft pick. But the seeds for a feud between Austin and Flair were being sewn, in a basic rehashing of the "Austin vs. the Boss" storyline that rocketed the WWF into the mainstream. Austin also was feuding with the New World Order, which had recently added X-Pac. Then The Big Show turned on Austin in a tag team match and joined the New World Order, and another feud was born, and another one Austin was unhappy with. He continued the feud with Flair and the Big Show, facing them in a handicap match at Judgment Day, not only beating them but taking out X-Pac as well, making the whole unit look bad once again. But Austin was still not happy. He requested a program with Eddie Guerrero, who he believed was the best all-around worker on the program. He was granted that, and Chris Benoit, another extremely talented worker, was also added to the mix. But this was still not enough for Austin; he went on the now-WWE's Internet talk show Byte This and lamented over the quality of the writing lately. A week later he arrived in Atlanta for Raw, and without telling anyone, packed up and left.

Apparently, Austin had been on the phone with both Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. Both tried to talk him into coming back, but Austin obviously did not heed their requests. Vince and Ross had had it, and decided not to invite Austin back. Twice no-showing was enough for them to close the doors on arguably the biggest star in the history of the business. If all this wasn't bad enough, a few days later, a San Antonio news channel broke the story of Austin's wife Debra calling in an abuse charge against her husband. Apparently she had a bruise under her eye and marks around her left shoulder. Though she did not elect to press charges, she admitted Steve had beaten her in the past, and she neglected to turn him in due to the couple's celebrity status. Then, even worse, Austin was caught by the same news station on camera driving his car with an open beer can in his lap. He turned to the camera and flipped them off.

Aside from no-showing Monday Night Raw twice, and for beating his wife, Austin committed two cardinal sins of the wrestling industry. Number one, he lived his gimmick, to the point where it ruined his career. And number two, Austin suddenly saw himself as bigger than the business. No one is bigger than the world of professional wrestling, no matter who you are or what you have done. Steve Austin put forth years of hard work, and it paid off. He did more than become a star, he became an icon. But somewhere along the line, something happened to the Texas Rattlesnake. Something changed. And that something left what would have been a historic career greatly tarnished. And that, as sad as it may be, is the bottomline.

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