 What's good Josh, we're Ross back again with another video. So we're going to check out ranking the 10 versions of Stone Cold Steve Austin from worse to best by wrestling a flashback for those who don't know. If you don't know, then you haven't been watching the channel that longer. You must be new here. Stone Cold Steve Austin is my favorite wrestler, you know, right behind him is the rock. They're like really one A is Stone Cold. One B is the rock for me. But Stone Cold is my favorite wrestler of all time. So I definitely was looking forward to checking this video out. This is one of the this is going to be one of those long form videos. So sit back, relax, get you something to drink, get you something to eat. We're going to be here for quite a while. And the video itself is 26 minutes and you know, I got to add my commentary to the mix, but this is going to be a great one. Stone Cold one of the greatest to ever ever do it in the square circle. So I'm looking forward to this. Let's get right into into this one. Don't waste no more of your time, man. From living on raw potatoes to being fired by FedEx to getting a chance. That's crazy, man. We share something common, man. You know, so I used to work at FedEx. I didn't get fired. Wait, did I get fired? I think I did get fired from FedEx. I don't even remember. I think I did. I think I think I may have gotten fired from FedEx. As to finally run his mouth through career ending injuries until finally being able to sit atop of the industry before then going one more round. Stone Cold Steve Austin experienced it all. And throughout his career, we've seen the rattlesnake evolve as a wrestler and as a character. Today, we'll be looking at every iteration of Steve and ranking each one as we rank the 10 versions of Stone Cold Steve Austin. All right. The Ring Master 1995 to 1996. We begin with the most ill-fated run of Steve's career after witnessing his in-ring capabilities in WCW and then how great his character work was in ECW. It was thought that WWF would be the place Austin would put it all together and become the all-round performer he had the potential to be. Sure, this eventually did happen, but it was a difficult start after Steve was saddled with the Ring Master gimmick right off the bat. The character had little direction other than the fact they emphasised Steve's skill between the ropes. At this point in his career, Austin was considered as nothing more than a good hand by the WWF since the higher ups didn't see much past his in-ring talent. Despite a good heel promo and push right out the gate, Steve wasn't given much time to speak as the Ring Master. Instead, Ted DiBiase did the talking for him. Ted DiBiase will forfeit his career. The pairing wasn't a good fit as Steve didn't need a mouthpiece anymore. He already worked with the manager and an attack team before. The WWF should have been the chance for him to show what he was truly capable of on his own. Instead, he was given few opportunities to display the charisma we knew he had. The official is still down in town. Oh, damn. Later became Federation law that Austin was given a mouthpiece and wasn't allowed to speak in order to keep him on a leash. Steve hated his time as the Ring Master. He didn't want to be a gimmick, especially one with next to no character. So over time, he began to shed this persona more and more. He shaved his head, grew a goatee and started wearing black clothes. This gave him the visual he needed to slowly transition to a new character and ultimately define his career. Number nine, Stunning Steve Austin, 1991 to 1995. Prior to joining WCW as Stunning Steve, Austin worked for the USWA. What the hair, man? He had the hair going. He struggled to make ends meet, famously living on a diet of canned tuna and raw potatoes. This is it. Your time is up. Bro, that's what you call getting it out the mud, bro. Living off that. Living off of just damn their rations at that point in his career, trying to make ends meet, trying to get his name out there. That's what you call getting it out the mud. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people back then that that did not think he was going to be the biggest name in wrestling. He was going to be synonymous with Hulk Hogan. I'm sure many people did not think that at all. I'm sure at one point he didn't think that was going to happen. I'm sure. But the fact he went from the stuff he was eating, raw potatoes all the way to where he, you know, ended up being ended up ending his career as that's just a testament to just how bad do you really want it, man? We got to go back to that. That's that's that's crazy. A diet of canned tuna and raw potatoes, raw potatoes, bro. Your time is up. It's our time to shine. Austin paid his dues here working for little money. But the most important thing is that he gained valuable experience putting strong work in the ring against the likes of gentlemen Chris Adams and nightmare Danny Davis. From there, Austin joined WCW where he was brought in as the heel stunning Steve Austin from Hollywood, California. It wasn't long until he won the television championship and was paired with poorly dangerous as part of the Dangerous Alliance. Heyman stated publicly during this time that he believed Austin would be the person to take resting into the new millennium. Wow, know what it takes to get it back. And Ross, that's exactly what I'll do. Wow, I see it. I see him fall in with hair. It's fucking wow to lengthy reign with the TV title and a push with the Dangerous Alliance. Austin's initial run in WCW wasn't memorable. Steve didn't cut many promos. He had little character, nor did he have a true persona to attach himself to. His resting was decent, but things didn't began to pick up until his feud with Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. Steamboat had some very good tag and singles matches with Steve. Ricky also pushed for the office to do more with Austin. However, WCW and the higher ups didn't see much in Steve past mid card level. Not believing it to be a possible star for the company. As a result, he was given limited time to speak and develop a legitimate. And that's that's crazy when the higher ups don't see the vision. And then you go somewhere else and then the vision is expounded upon exponentially to the point where people in other companies like what did we just give up? So now Austin would later become the ringmaster, but perhaps his true master of the ring run came during his stunning Steve days since he lacked character and cut few promos. Plus, whenever he did, there were nothing special. This Wednesday, it's going to be a contest of epic proportions. There were glimpses of potential, but it was never able or allowed to blossom. But let me tell you something right now. You meanly mouth, Hawaiian punk people in TV land to come on and touch your screen. Austin's time in WCW is remembered solely for his in-ring work. And it was because of this that WWF gave in the ringmaster gimmick. It took adversity for Steve to figure out who he truly was. As Austin was fired by Eric Bischoff without a face-to-face meeting, Eric wasn't happy. And that's cold getting started in your wrestling career, getting fired from FedEx and then now you're getting fired from from Bischoff. I mean, wouldn't even face-to-face just like, hey, you know, I just wanted to let you know you fired, you know, over the phone type situation. That's kind of cold, man. That's cold. Eric Bischoff without a face-to-face meeting, Eric wasn't happy with Steve's injury record, attitude or his marketability. Austin later stated that he agreed with Bischoff's decision to cut bait. However, that was in hindsight. Steve's immediate reaction was to spit bullets as we're about to see. Number eight, ECW 1995. Austin came into ECW with the biggest chip on his shoulder due to how things ended with WCW. Steve channeled this energy and real-life frustration into the promos he cut. He was given free reign to shoot from the hip. Unscrupted. Take me back because I ain't got what it takes to get it done in ECW, man. It took being fired for Steve to tap into what would later become that bad motherfucker don't trust anyone mindset. As the ISD brought here, planted the seeds for the no-nonsense, stone-cold character, since Austin was allowed to be him and say exactly what he felt. Because it's you that married a mansion, not me. Oh, my God. A while before we would see Steve in this form again, his ECW run showed how good of a talker he could be. It demonstrated his potential as a money-making character, as opposed to just a good wrestler. Steve took aim at Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan and the ECW's reliance on the older stars, wrestling a so main event style. You're wrong, me, Joey, because Steve Austin doesn't have what it takes. Austin set out to prove that he was the true superstar. WCW didn't believe him to be. Hence the moniker he went by in ECW, Superstar Steve Austin. Paul Heyman knew Steve was destined for greatness long before anyone else. So it was only fitting that Paul gave Austin the platform to find that piece of the puzzle he was missing. ECW was also the place where Steve discovered the stunner that he would later use in WWF, having adopted the move from Mikey Whiprack. Although Austin's time in ECW was short, it will be remembered for the impact it had in developing the Stone Cold character. Since it gave Steve the chance to say what was on his mind and be the truest version of himself that he'd been up to this point. Number seven, Raw GM, 2003 to 2004. With his days in the ring behind him, Austin stayed on TV as the co-general manager of Raw. I definitely enjoyed him as GM, bro. He's just Stone Cold, bro. It's Stone Cold, man, making the matches. And if you don't like the matches, guess what? Too bad, you're gonna eat a stunner and still have to do the match. I love Stone Cold as GM. It was just great. Continuing his feud with fellow GM, Eric Bischoff. Here we got to see a different side of Steve as an authority figure. We got a glimpse of this back when he was briefly the CEO of WWF in 1999. It was then that we got an earlier look at Austin's comedic talents. When I come back in this room, are you still standing? You still got a job. Steve was more established now and could get away with being funny a lot more, especially since he wasn't going to be wrestling again. Eric Bischoff. Bischoff. It was brilliant to see Austin call the shots with all his rattlesnake charm. To stop Steve stunning everyone in sight, a rule was created where Stone Cold could only attack someone if physically provoked. It's added another dimension to Austin's character. And they had to, but I definitely do, like, you know what I'm saying? Even though, you know, people would talk, they'd talk if he had the chance. And you physically provoked him, even if you shoved him on accident. It was fair game, and I love that. Since you had to show restraint instead of forcing him to raise his head like he did while in active breast, sir. What? I want to just say... Oh, you got a microphone in your hand, use it. I want your t-shirt. A big fan of Chris Jericho, are you? No, I'm not a big fan. They ran out of toilet paper. Instead of using physicality, Steve had to use his common and comedic sense. Stop it right there. Stop the music now. I ain't got time to watch you spray that stupid-ass water all over the ground. I love that segment, bro. Cut his damn music. I ain't got time to watch you spray that stupid-ass water. I love that. That's one of my favorite moments from him being the GM, bro. That was fantastic. You say, cut his music, bro. I don't want to see you do that shit. Plus, Austin had other priorities as toy and player key role in progressing major storylines, such as Cain's Monster Heel Run. Mm-hmm. At extreme experience, the world's most exciting cards. I fucking love that version of Stone Cold, bro. GM Stone Cold was great. Chris Jericho, Christian, and of course, Bischoff made for some great television. No, no, no, no, no! Bischoff. Steve's feud with Bischoff came to a head at the 2004 Survivor Series when Austin's team lost to Erics, meaning the Rattlesnake had to step down as raw GM and leave WWE in the process. Although Steve returned a short time later, his days as a regular character on television were about to end, with WrestleMania 20 being a last hurrah of sorts. Mm-hmm. Stone Cold is starting! Number six, What Era, 2002 to 2003. Once the invasion came to an end, Heel Austin was done and the old song called was back. And he brought within one word that would define this version of the rattlesnake. Over the next two decades, what became Resting's most popular chant? It still is. Usually people will chant it like, especially if it's like a Heel out there, they'll do the what chant. But sometimes they'll do it with a babyface and depending on how good that babyface is able to overcome that what chant, it usually lets you know that the chant, whether it's a babyface or a Heel, it still gets yelled out at a lot of arenas. It'll be a wrestling staple until the end of time that people are never gonna not do the what chant. It doesn't matter if you're a good guy or a bad guy, you just gotta be able to either roll with it or kind of ignore it in the midst of your promo and kind of move past it. Cause it's just that, it's just that over, it will always be over. What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? Thanks to Steve saying the word over and over again, which led the crowd doing the same. You don't breathe. What? You got no pulse. What? You're not alive. What? No one ran as hard as Stone Cold during his period on top, although Steve had a wife and kids, he was married to the road full time. He became very protective of his position, becoming paranoid and fearful over keeping his spot. He gave absolutely everything to the business, but things started to unravel for Austin in 2002. Just my dear truckers. He was beat up, taking prescription drugs and drinking heavily. His marriage to Deborah was falling apart due to Steve's violence. Meanwhile, he'd been disillusioned with WWE's creative for a while. Austin's character was becoming stale, with past angles being rehashed. The final straw for Steve came when he was asked to lose to Brock Lesnar in a King of the Ring qualifying match on Raw with NoBuild. Austin took his ball and went home, walking out of WWE, turning the company on its head in the process. I'm not happy with the direction Stone Cold Steve Austin's going. I ain't happy with the direction no company's going. After a lengthy conversation with Jim Ross and later Vince, Austin made his return at the start of 2003, beginning a memorable storyline that reignited the previous real life feud with Eric Bischoff, focusing on how Eric never saw Steve as a star in WCW and fired him because of this. At this point in his career, Austin's neck was on its last legs. Stone Cold had just one more round left in him, and who better to go the distance with for the final time than the Rock. With the great one as the heel once again, he and Steve built tremendously towards WrestleMania 19. The WrestleMania 17 clash signaled the end of the attitude era, but the match in Seattle also proved to be a farewell. Yeah. Classic match, man. Fantastic match. A lot of days even resting part time were about to end, and although at the time we didn't know for sure that this was Austin's final match, it was the perfect storybook ending for the Rattlesnake since he was finally defeated by his greatest in-ring rival on the grandest stage. The man that if that was still his very last match ever, I don't think anyone would have complained. They had great matches at WrestleMania. Obviously, Stone Cold won both of them. It only made sense for the Rock to at least get one victory in the final match between these guys at WrestleMania. They've had a legendary rivalry. They are the epitome of the attitude era. It only made sense at that time for that to be Stone Cold's last match and no one tripped. No one, no one had a problem with it at all until he came back and it was fucking fun to see him again recently. That's long ago. So yeah, man. Number five, returning legend, 2005 to 2022. Throughout the next decade, Austin would make one-off appearances as a special referee for big matches. Yeah. It was always great to see Stone Cold raise some hell once again, but every so often the question would be raised as to whether the rattlesnake had one more match to play. Wow. That's right. That's a different time. Stephanie McMahon getting stunned. That's crazy. Oh, no. I fucking love with this thing of fits. What was that noise? He screamed. Listen to this again. Every so often the question would be raised as to whether the rattlesnake had one more match left in it. I love that. There's one thing you need to do before buying anything. Oh, I love that, bro. Speaking in various interviews, he left the door open for future matches, even though privately it was known that Steve was done, which later came to light publicly following the release of the Mania of WrestleMania documentary in 2004. Despite this, Stone Cold was meant to wrestle Jonathan Coachman at Taboo Tuesday 2005, but pulled out the night before WrestleMania 25 in his home set of Texas, Austin headlined the 2009 Hall of Fame, joined the select group of people to be personally inducted by Vince McMahon. Vince paid the highest tribute to Austin, staying. He was the greatest WWE superstar of all time. The greatest WWE superstar of all time, prospect of a more suitable that's that's crazy considering, you know, you got Hulk Hogan or whatnot, you could put into that category for some people, you know, but I mean, he helped him win the Monday Night Wars. And of course, WCW doing dumb stuff, booking wise and self self sabotaging themselves. He definitely helped. There's no denying Stone Cold was the catalyst for helping WC helping WWE BW in the Monday Night Wars matchup came after Austin verbally jousted with CM Punk in two separate segments in 2011 and 2012. This set fans clamoring for a match, but it never materialized. Then after another tease of a match this time with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 came to nothing. Fans were resigned to the fact that Austin would never wrestle again, especially when Steve later made it clear his days in the ring were done. This was until 2022. Kevin Owens began disrespecting the state of Texas and later Austin himself. And I was one of those people that initially didn't want to see it. I can I can say that initially I didn't want to see it. But when that glass broke and when you saw him come down that ramp, I was like, you know what? I just got hit with just overwhelming like nostalgia to see this guy back in a wrestling ring and actually about to have a match. And it was fun. It was exactly what it needed to be. It was fantastic. I can't I can I can be honest here and say that I was wrong. I was wrong. That was a fun, fun, fun match. It just brought me back to my childhood, man. With the rumors of Steve appearing at WrestleMania for an encounter with Owens later being confirmed, it left people speculating if it would be a physical segment or an actual match. Austin went on to wrestle Owens in a classic attitude-era style main event that the rattlesnake was famous for. Love it. It was a surreal but welcome sight to see Steve back in the ring after so long. Number four, Hollywood Blondes 1993. Instead of a prolonged singles push with the US title, Austin was put in a tag team with Brian Pillman. This team was thrown together as creative, didn't have much for either man as singles wrestlers. The two complimented each other well. Really? So people around the world are going to watch as the blondes. Steve was the straight ace mechanic, while Brian was the flamboyant high flyer. They were known as the Hollywood Blondes and would play up the Hollywood aspect of their act by taunting and using props. They proved to be a formidable and popular team with tremendous chemistry. They captured the tag titles and worked notable views with Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. Oh damn, they going at it. As well as Ric Flair and R. Anderson, the latter of which we got to see what Pillman and Austin were capable of on the microphone. After less than a year of teaming, the blondes split following an injury to Pillman. The two briefly feuded before Steve then went after and won the United States Championship. The team definitely had more they could have accomplished and it seemed unfair to break them up so quickly, especially since they were initially paired together because the company didn't know what to do with them as solo stars. Oh look at this. Look at that. They're trophy hunting. Then on the head of Steve as a duo, they were broken up. Austin felt this was done intentionally as another way of WCW to keep their thumb on him. The Hollywood Blondes will be remembered as a great team that prematurely ended on account of both men's talents not being appreciated by World Championship Wrestling. Number 3. Healturn and Alliance Stunkhold 2001. Austin did the unthinkable by allowing a Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 17. Steve believed his character was getting stale. He didn't want to rehash the past, feeling that Healturn would freshen things up. I'll split your skull wide open. This is the the deterrent. The character turn or character change that a lot of people are mixed on. Some people enjoyed it. Some people felt like it didn't really work. It wasn't really necessary. Personally, I think it had its moments. Like it definitely had its moments, especially when he aligned them. So with Triple H, he was doing everything he could to be the most hated individual. And it was working for a little bit, but I believe Triple H ended up getting hurt or whatnot. And he kind of lost steam and then he kind of gotten to more of the comedy act more than just being this detestable but there's some people that rocked with his Healturn and some people felt like he just stayed who he was from the jump. Even though Vince didn't agree, he felt he owed it to Austin to allow him to have a run as a heel given how much Steve had done for the company. Austin siding with Vince was the culmination of the attitude era, as the feud that won WWF the war against WCW came to an end just as the World Wrestling Federation had bought out their competition. But getting people to boo Austin wasn't going to be easy. The motion tried their hardest to make this happen. They tried. And even Steve a much more evil character. Yeah, bro. When he started beating up Michael Cole, I was like, I mean, come on, bro. And then what him and Triple H did to to the Hardys and Lita, I was like, OK, I got to boo him now. We love Hardy. We love the Hardys. We love Lita at that time. I got to boo them. He beat the crap out of Cole. One's best friend, JR, brutally punished Lita. Yeah. Yeah. When he did the JR was cold, too. I was like, come on, bro, you love JR, bro. What are you doing? Oh, my God. Not to mention the way he bullied people around. Yep. But here's the line with the. But here's the thing in these clips, you still see people cheering. They he was trying as hardest. But for some people, they didn't care. It's don't go by his triple H. These actions would have been people around. Listen to that. Oh, he even aligned with the despised triple H. These actions would have made the rattlesnake a hated heel in any era. The problem was that he was just coming off a run as perhaps the most popular star. Yeah, it was suffering an injury and needing to keep a presence on TV. Austin began to lean more on the comedy side. They start getting into more of the comedy side in his heart departure from the original Stone Cold character, which, you know, it's once again, it's hard to boost someone now even more when they're funny. You know what I'm saying? So, like I said, some people were for the heel turning and thought it worked. And then there was other people that was like, it didn't really work because I still liked him. I'm still cheered when he was doing some of the bad stuff. It was a welcome change since Steve wasn't working out as a more traditional heel breathing down our necks, breathing down our necks. They're breathing down the ball during his initial run as a baby face. Geez, man, bro. Austin doing comedy as a heel opened the door for him to try more stuff like this. So wrong. I love it. Adding a different dimension to the character that only became more prevalent as Steve transitioned away from the ring. Although Steve ultimately regretted turning heel, this run provided fans with so many great moments. As we got to see how funny Austin could be as a character. Number two, Rise of Austin 366 to 1998. Following a rough start to life in the WWF as a ringmaster, Steve came up with a new persona that was inspired by the infamous hitman, Richard Kuklinski. Like Kuklinski, Steve would be cold, calculated and remorseless. Austin leaned heavier on these traits in the beginning with a quiet demeanor and eerie delivery before becoming more of an extension of his real life self that was certainly blended with elements from the Iceman persona. It is Stone Cold. The Iceman influence acted as a catalyst for Steve to portray who he truly was on television, just with the dial turned up. Since the WWF was still focused on gimmicks during this period, this was the foot in the door and the basis for the Stone Cold character. Hey, wait a minute. No more. I don't get a word about the production of Sister. On this Ted DiBiossi and the Million Dollar Championship, Steve instead went to the King of the Ring in 1996 and won the tournament in convincing fashion, cutting a star making promo that was one of the first launching pads for the Stone Cold character. Sixteen just whipped your ass. Austin benefited from Hunter Hearst Helmsey being punished for his role in the curtain call. Yeah. Helmsey had previously been booked to win that year's King of the Ring, but wrestling is all about right place, right time. And that's literally what it was. Right place, right time, Austin, 316, I just whooped your ass. Boom, Austin, 316 shirts everywhere. What do we talk about? And Austin's time was now. Stone Cold wasn't an overnight success following King of the Ring. Despite a continued push, his rivalry with old partner, Brian Pilman, was memorable because it showed just how vicious Austin could be. Damn. Steve was fully embracing the calculated Iceman Stone Cold character. It went beyond the squared circle, seeing as this storyline was one of the few times a deadly weapon was drawn in wrestling. This was somewhat fitting for Austin's realistic character, given out the real life. The incident was a home invasion and gun nearly being fired is just something that hadn't been seen in wrestling before. The seeds for the attitude era amongst Austin's rise was who moved to a more well, they were they definitely was turning up the edge. They were getting edgier for sure. Wasn't all family friendly. Wasn't all about that family friendly stuff. We're trying to beat another company in WCW. We'll have to turn up the edge a little bit to get some more people to get the youth to watch edgier product was needed. And with that, Steve was the ideal poster boy. The side was there. It was just up to WWF to pull the trigger. It really began to take off for Steve during his feud with Bret Hart. Instead of matches, Survivor Series was followed up with Austin cheating his way to winning the 1997 Royal Rumble. But despite that, many people were starting to get on board with Austin, his rebellious short tempered and unscripted character was perfect for wrestling fan wanted at the time. The bottom line because Stone Cold said so. Especially with the likes of the NWO running rough shot over on Nitro, allowing WCW to firmly lead the way in the Monday Night War. Meanwhile, Bret Hart's constant complaining leaned him towards the villain side. It's all built to the five star classic submission match between the two at WrestleMania 30. The double turn was executed to perfection, resulting in an all time great encounter. That would be illegal. Bink! Steve fought and fought, but passed out before he could give up. The visual was amongst the most iconic images ever seen in wrestling, as Austin was truly put on the map with his performance. The Austin 316 promo allowed the Stone Cold persona to burst onto the scene, while the Bret feud and especially the WrestleMania 13 match proved Steve was the next big star. Stone Cold was going to stop at nothing to be that guy. Despite this, he was far from a typical baby face. Austin was, however, the perfect type of character to take wrestling into the new millennium. After getting a taste of the main event by challenging the Undertaker for the WWF title and tearing the house down with Shawn Michaels in separate matches that each took place on Pay-Per-View, next on the horizon for Austin, was a feud with Bret's brother, Robin Hart, for the Intercontinental Championship. During their match at Summer Sam 1997, Steve's career was changed forever, when he woke his neck after receiving a sit-out tombstone pile driver. Jesus. It's a technique you don't often see being used, and you can see why given the risk involved. This nearly ended Austin's career there and then. Steve ultimately recovered, but was forced to change up how he wrestled. He became more of a brawler, working a star that became synonymous with the Attitude Era and its grandstand main event matches. Shortly after his return to action, Stone Cold won the 1998 Royal Rumble. The next night, Austin got in the face of Mike Tyson. It was a test to see how dare Austin was that he was stand up to the baddest man on the planet. It didn't matter who he was. This was so legendary to him. Through Stone Cold's way, he would mow you down. Hahaha. Steve believed he was the baddest man there is, and it was this type of mentality that got him to this point, as he then defeated Shawn Michaels to capture his first WWF championship at WrestleMania 14. Oh, whoo. Austin era had begun. No one could stop him, not even chairman, Vince McMahon. The Stone Cold character had made Steve the most over-starring wrestling and helped finally put an end world championship wrestling's 83 week ratings dominance. Austin was the driving force that helped the WWF overtake WCW and soon lead them in the dust. Stone Cold and the WWF were becoming more mainstream than ever. Number one, face of the company, 1998-2001. With Stone Cold as WWF champion, the attitude era was officially upon us. Austin took the ball and ran with it, harder than any top guy had before him. Attendances and pay-per-view buy rates were about to soar. Meanwhile, Steve and his feud with Vince McMahon had made Monday Night Raw appointment television. Fans tuned in anticipating how Vince would try and screw Stone Cold this week. To see how much hell Austin could raise in response. Steve really knew his character. As did the writers, they had to put themselves in the mind of Austin and think what would Stone Cold do while at the same time trying to top what they did the previous year. Legendary segment. Nothing was off limits when it came to the era. The beer truck was perfectly normal for Austin to ride into the arena driving just about anything. The monster truck. During those reckless moments when it looked like things were out of control, Steve was more than in control. This is where the calculated aspect of his character came back into play. While also being that rebellious anti-hero that stood up and defined authority by raising as much hell as possible, all the while Austin carried the company on his back whether he was holding the title or chasing it. No matter how many times the McMahons tried to screw Steve. The rattlesnake always came back fighting in a saga that also included epic battles against the likes of Kane and The Undertaker. Austin's route back to the WWF title was directly to overcoming the odds so that the stage was set for the first match of resting's most iconic trilogy with Stone Cold challenging the Rock for the WWF title in WrestleMania 15's main event. It was another crowning moment for the rattlesnake. The beer drinking bionic red neck was at the very top of his game. Austin's second year as the WWF's top man wasn't without hardship though. By the summer Steve's neck was once again on thin ice. Surgery was needed and it meant a lengthy spell on the sidelines. During Austin's time away the Rock rose to the occasion assuming the top spot during arguably the WWF. Yeah when he was going with injury the Rock was that guy. That's how you you keep the ball like someone dropped the ball you picked the ball and he kept running with it. He was that guy so when Stone Cold came back now his fans like bro we who do we choose we love both of these guys man. Best creative year in 2000. The who ran over Stone Cold angle was not one of the shining lights of that year however. Rikishi. But what it did do was reignite the great feud between Austin and Triple H that ended prematurely the year prior due to Steve's injury. After Austin put over the game the Rock was once again in the Texas rattlesnake's crosshairs. A third Royal Rumble win meant Steve challenged the Rock for the WWF title at the show of shows for the second time. WrestleMania 17 was the culmination of the Monday Night War. The WWF had defeated and purchased their competition. WrestleMania ended with the three men that were responsible for defeating WCW. The dawning of the attitude era was required to shift the balance of power. An era that was defined by Austin versus McFan and the era that ended with Steven Vince joining forces. It brought an end to perhaps the greatest period in wrestling that was led by arguably its greatest character. His road to becoming Stone Cold wasn't easy. Staying on top was just as difficult but through it all Steve worked his ass off to become a true superstar. From being fired by WCW to becoming a key driving force and ultimately defeating them once and for all. As the face of the attitude era Steve was arguably the most popular performer in wrestling history. Austin redefined the sport. Taking it to heights it hadn't seen before and likely will never see again. Steve gave everything to the business. His impact helped the WWF reclaim and remain number one in the industry. Talk about Austin 316 talk about Stone Cold widing off into the sunset as the be all end all the bottom line of professional wrestling. This was fantastic man I'm gonna go ahead and like this one go ahead and give this a like subscribe to wrestling flashbacks if you haven't already. This was fantastic this just brought me back down memory lane. It's Stone Cold man as Jay y'all would say Stone Cold Stone Cold Stone Cold he's it's Stone Cold he's that guy he's my favorite wrestler for a reason you've seen multiple reasons why if you didn't know why he's my favorite wrestler of all time. So comment down below let me know what's your favorite version of Stone Cold Steve Austin man but I appreciate all the love and support you guys have shown on this video Roll to 150K and I'm Steve again speaking to you to the wrestling champion of the world appreciate y'all keeping me see y'all on the next one peace