Name: Steve Williams
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 252
Finishing Move: Stone Cold Stunner
Favorite Quote: "And that's the
bottom line,
because Stone Cold said so!"
Titles held: WWF Hevyweight
Championship, Intercontinental
Chamionship, and Tag Team Championship.
In 1989, Steve Austin was living in
Texas and earning a living by unloading
trucks on the loading dock. His football
scholarship at North Texas State
University had run out, and working at
the docks was his only way of making
some cash.
During that time, he would go to the
Sportatorium in Dallas to watch the Von
Erichs wrestle. He was always a fan of
the sport, watching Paul Boesch's
Houston Wrestling on television while
growing up. One day after work, Steve
saw an ad for a wrestling school run by
Chris Adams. He decided to take a shot
and five months later, in 1990, he had
his first professional match for World
Class Championship Wrestling.
During his
tenure in WCCW, Austin and Adams engaged
in a bitter feud—with the student
eventually toppling his teacher.
In 1991, "Stunning" Steve Austin was
introduced to World Championship
Wrestling and spent the next five years
in the promotion.
As a singles
competitor, the Texan captured the
organization's TV Title in 1992 with a
win over Barry Windham. One year later,
he captured their U.S. Title on two
occasions from Dustin Runnels and then
Ricky Steamboat. But it was his pairing
with the late Brian Pillman that earned
Austin his greatest notoriety.
As the "Hollywood Blonds," Austin
and
Pillman became the most recognizable
tandem in the promotion, eventually
beating Steamboat and Shane Douglas for
the tag team gold. After the Blonds
broke up, the "powers that be" at WCW
decided that Austin wouldn't "get over"
without a "gimmick." According to the
front office, a wrestler in black boots
and black trunks wasn't marketable.
During a tour of Japan, the Texan
tore
his tricep and subsequently underwent
surgery to repair it. While in rehab,
the WCW hierarchy decided to fire him.
But, instead of bringing Steve in to the
office and doing it face to face, they
took the chicken @#$% way and fired him
over the phone. According to Austin, WCW
treated him like a "complete jackass,"
and he was hell-bent on making them pay!
After a brief run in ECW, Steve Austin
signed a deal with the World Wrestling
Federation in 1995. Instead of letting
the superstar tear ass through the
ranks, he was given the moniker of the
"Ring Master" and issued a mouthpiece in
the form of Ted DiBiase. However, that
didn't last long and the Texan proudly
walked on his own.
Steve Austin's breakthrough came at
the 1996 King of the Ring, where he
suffered more than a dozen stitches from
Marc Mero and still went on to beat Jake
"The Snake" Roberts in the final!
During his coronation ceremony, the
superstar took the opportunity to speak
his mind—and the legacy of "Austin 3:16"
was born! Within a year, Stone Cold
became the biggest phenomenon in the
history of the Federation, stomping the
@#$% out of the "take your vitamins and
say your prayers" theory of the past
era.
After a bitter feud with Bret Hart,
which saw the two engage in a bloody war
at WrestleMania 13, Austin went on to
capture the Federation Tag Team
Championship with Shawn Michaels in May
of 1997. After the Heartbreak Kid was
forced out of action due to injuries,
Dude Love stepped in as Stone Cold's
partner, and together they reclaimed the
title.
That August at the '97 SummerSlam,
Stone Cold nearly had his career ended
by Owen Hart.
The Texan's neck was severely damaged by
his foe's piledriver, and he was
paralyzed on the mat before miraculously
rolling up Owen for the title! However,
the superstar was put out of action with
the injury and forced to vacate the
gold.
Stone Cold's return to the ring came
at the 1997 Survivor Series, where he
dismantled Owen to reclaim the
Intercontinental Championship. After
Federation owner Mr. McMahon stripped
him of the title and awarded it to The
Rock, Austin set his sights on the
grandest prize in the sport—the
Federation Title. His road to the
championship began at the 1998 Royal
Rumble, where he eliminated The Rock to
earn his shot at the title at
WrestleMania XIV.
That night in Boston's FleetCenter
with Mike Tyson serving as the special
"Enforcer", the Rattlesnake beat Shawn
Michaels—ushering in a new era of
"Attitude" in the Federation! It took
eight long f'in years for Stone Cold
Steve Austin to make it to the top—and
according to him "there ain't no way in
hell anyone--not even Vince McMahon, is
going to keep me from getting it back!"
Steve Austin was on top of the world
after defeating Shawn Michaels for the
Federation Championship at WrestleMania
XV. Little did he know that his greatest
enemy was waiting in the wings, ready to
knock him from his plateau.
Although the relationship between
Austin and Federation owner Vincent K.
McMahon had always been less than
cordial, the hatred between the men
intensified after the Rattlesnake won
the Federation Championship. Austin did
not fit McMahon's ideal of a champion,
and the Federation owner immediately set
out to take the title away from Austin.
McMahon searched throughout the
Federation for the competitor that would
be able to soundly defeat Austin in the
ring, hopefully breaking his spirit in
the process.
First up was Dude Love, who came
close, but never quite succeeded in
taking down the Rattlesnake.
Kane did manage to wrest the
Championship away from Austin for one
day, but Stone Cold proved resilient
enough to bounce back and regain his
belt.
Finally, at SummerSlam 1998, Austin
faced his greatest test to date, barely
managing to defeat the Undertaker in an
extremely brutal contest that took an
incredible toll on both superstars.
After SummerSlam, the battle lines
were clearly drawn, and McMahon
intensified his efforts to destroy Steve
Austin. These plans proved to be
temporarily successful, culminating with
Austin losing his title in a three-way
match against Kane and the Undertaker,
and then actually being fired from the
Federation for a brief period.
Through some complex legal
maneuvering, Austin was quickly
reinstated into the Federation. After
winning his steel cage match against the
Federation owner at the St. Valentines
Day Massacre, Stone Cold went on to
regain his lost gold from The Rock at
WrestleMania XV! Once again, Stone Cold
Steve Austin is the Federation Champion,
and the Texas Rattlesnake is on top of
the world!
Credit Stonecold.com