Stone Cold Steve Austin: WZ Hall of Fame Class of May 2010 Induction Thread

[Tastycles]

This will be the first of four threads for May 2010's inductees. The way it works is like this: the threads will be open until May 31, at which point I will induct or reject the superstar. To qualify, the wrestler must gain 80% of support. If they have between 70 and 80%, but more than 80% of posts are in their favour, they will get in. If they have over 50%, they'll get another shot, if they get less than that, they won't. My favourite positive post in this thread will be used as the induction speech if they do get in.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Steve Austin is unquestionably the face of wrestling in the 90s. Debuting as Stunning Steve Austin, he first entered WCW and immediately exchanged a couple of TV title reigns with Barry Windham. However, it was in 1993 when his career truly took off.

In January of that year he joined Brian Pillman in a team called The Hollywood Blonds. They quickly won the WCW tag titles, and defended it for half the year before dropping the titles when Pillman was injured, and Austin defended them alongside William Regal in a losing effort.

However, when Pillman got back, Austin attacked him, setting in motion a long term feud that would continue across companies. Austin beat Dustin Rhodes for the US title at Starrcade, before losing it to Steamboat. He was reawarded the title, briefly, after Steamboat was injured, but Duggan beat him quickly and the reign was over. Two injuries later, Austin found himself sacked, famously because Eric Bischoff found him unmarketable.

Austin went to ECW as Superstar Steve Austin, doing in-ring interviews, before finishing out 1995 in a feud with Mikey Whipwreck. Following that, he left and found himself in the WWF in Ted DiBiase's Million Dolllar Corporation as The Ringmaster. Following a decent showing in the Royal Rumble and having been given the Million Dollar Title, The Ringmaster was the apple of DiBiase's eye. However, following a rematch with Savio Vega, having beaten him at WrestleMania XII, Austin lost, causing DiBiase to get fired.

Now, freshly bald headed and now using the stunner as his finisher, Stone Cold Steve Austin was born. He won the 1996 King Of The Ring tournament, and famously made his 3:16 promo, and his rise to the top was on the move. He spent the rest of 1996 feuding with both Pillman, breaking into his house, and Bret Hart, who he cheated out of a Royal Rumble win in 1997.

He ended up missing out on the WWE title, instead fighting Bret Hart in what is one of the most notorious matches in WWF history. At the end of the match, he turned face, and became a top priority for the company. Austin continued to feud with Hart and his family, and won the tag titles twice - once with Shawn Michaels, and then with Dude Love, when the latter came to help him after he had initially tried to win the titles on his own.

His feuds with the Harts led to a match against with Owen at Summerslam. He won the IC title, but not before breaking his neck, which led to him vacating the title. After a few sporiadic appearances, including one where he stunned Vince for the first time. He returned to win the title at Survivor Series. He vacated the title after throwing it in a river to prevent himself from having to face The Rock.

He then got into a feud with all of the gangs that existed at the time, culminating in a Royal Rumble win when they were all trying to get him. This led to amatch with the newly injured Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV for the WWF Title. He won thanks to assistance from enforcer Mike Tyson. This led to the biggest feud in WWF history.

McMahon did anything in his power to get the title off Austin, eventually succeeding when Kane beat him, only for Austin to get it back. Austin lost a triple threat to the Brothers of Destruction, and then kept getting screwed out of the title by McMahon. After losing the Royal Rumble, he was able to get the title shot by beating Vince thanks to Paul Wight at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

This lead to victory against the Rock at WrestleMania XV, for the title, which he lost to Undertaker at Over The Edge. Austin continued to feud with McMahon, this time over the power of the company. McMahon won, but Austin regained the title, only to lose it to Mankind. Eventually, he feuded with Triple H, but was run over before he faced him. In reality, he was getting neck surgery and was out for a long while.

The perpetrator of the hit and run was revealed as Rikishi, and after a brief feud, he was revealed to have been paid by Triple H to do it. This lead to a long feud, which included a third Royal Rumble win for Austin. After a bloody three stages of hell match with Triple H at No Way Out, he won the WWF Title at WrestleMania X-7, thanks to siding with McMahon to beat The Rock.

This heel turn was his first for a while, and he formed a tag team with Triple H called the two man power trip. They monopolised the titles available at the time, before Triple H was injured. After briefly feuding with Benoit and Jericho, Austin was injected into the Invasion angle. He betrayed the WWF and joined the Alliance, briefly exchanging the title with Angle, who then joined him.

In the payoff of the angle, Angle turned on the Alliance, but Austin returned the next night, sided with Ric Flair and retained his WWF title until losing it against Chris Jericho. He finished the year beating Booker T. He started 2002 feuding with Jericho then the nWo, but was unable to agree terms to face Hogan, and instead beat Scott Hall at WrestleMania X-8. Austin left the WWE soon afterwards, having briefly feuded with Big Show and Taker.

He returned briefly to face to, and lose to The Rock at WrestleMania XIX, but then his career was over. Over the last few years, he has returned a few times in order to stunner people and special referee a few matches, and was recently a guest host on Raw, but he mostly spends his time on straight to DVD film projects.

The question is, should he be in our Hall of Fame?

 

[PsychoBlack]

Steve Austin should without a doubt be in our hall of fame. He was one of the greatest brawlers of our era, had a kick ass finisher and was one of the first bad ass faces. thats not even mentioning that he did so much for the sport, ask anyone who stone cold steve austin is and they will know

 

[Tastycles]

I was never as big a fan of Austin as I was of many others in his epoch, to be perfectly honest, but there can be no question that he deserves to go into our hall of fame. It was his interaction with Mike Tyson that finally stopped the ratings rot in the WWE's favour, and his feud with McMahon that led to the company winning the MondayNight Wars. There may never have been a bigger influence on the direction of the history of wrestling than Steve Austin.

 

[Ferbian]

Argh god damn I forgot about this thread when it was made..

Steve Austin has contributed to this business throughout many many years, and has definitely earned to be in the WZ Hall of Fame, and that's not even arguable, seeing as Steve has beaten the best of the best throughout his career, and has proved himself in the ring on numerous occasions, he continued to wrestle a match with a broken neck (while the finish certainly was a little bland, but can you blame him?) and he has done everything in this business, for this business, and was the savior of WWE in the late 90's.

Stone Cold should go into the WZ Hall of Fame.. and that's the bottom line, cause Stone Cold said so.. OH HELL YEAH

 

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Steve Austin should be in the Hall of Fame but not only remembered as a brawler. Instead he was a fine technician in the ring when necessary. I remember seeing him grapple with both Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit live at King of the Ring and though he was past the prime, he seemed to be holding out against two of the finest technical wrestlers of the decade. The match at Survivor Series in nineteen ninety-six against Bret Hart was crafted more as an art than the bloody mess at the following Wrestlemania. Add the toughness in and he certainly was the most unique champion considering those two aspects.

 

[Why Always Me]

OH HELL YEAH!!

One of the 3 biggest stars ever in the history of wrestling, had the best selling t-shirt of all time (I think) and helped put WCW out of business during his time at the top.

Also had the best finisher of all time - but more than that is a legend, many great matches, many great feuds, anyone who disagrees is an idiot.

 

[Dave]

As much as I didn't like Austin during the Attitude Era, I can see how so many people think he revolutionised the WWE and took it to the next level.

Truth be told, I was, and still am, a huge Triple H mark and the only time that I actually cared about Austin was when he and Triple H founded the two man Power Trip. That being said, for a long time Stone Cold Steve Austin was the man of the people. There may never be a man who has much eccentricity and fans as Stone Cold did. His angle against The Corporation and more importantly, Vince McMahon will go down as one the most intriguing, destructive and all round entertaining feuds in the history of the WWE.

Austin was a beer swilling, one-finger saluting, trash talking man of the people and the fans just lapped it up. He will always be remembered for his angles with Vince McMahon although he was not just a one trick pony. Inside the ring, he may not have been the best wrestler but he was certainly good enough to get him to where he needed to go, in terms of angles. He was a multiple time World Champion and his matches against Bret Hart and The Rock at WrestleMania X-7 are some of the finest displays of entertainment I have ever come across as a fan of wrestling.

Austin was the man who kept WWE in business, I think it comes down to being that simple. WCW was winning a lot of the ratings wars and the WWE needed something to give them the edge. That was the Attitude Era and it was spear-headed by Stone Cold Steve Austin. He had so many wonderful moments that I honestly couldn't list them all. However, some of my favourites were definitely the monster truck and Vince's car. WrestleMania X-7 and the Invasion angle.

Austin definitely belongs here, there is no doubting it.

 

[goodlay]

Austin, without a doubt, is one of the biggest stars the wrestling business has ever seen. He got put over by the biggest stars in WWE at the time (HBK, Bret, Taker, among others) and in WWE's darkest hour, losing miserably to WCW, they handed Austin the ball and let him run with it. Looking back to WM14 where Austin won his first WWE title, watching it still gives me goosebumps to this day. He then would take part in one of the greatest angles/storylines in his epic feud with the boss, Vince McMahon. Austin carried the WWE in 98, as the mid-card was pretty weak, Austin was the sole reason why I watched WWE at that time. Austin made you want to tune in every Monday night to see what he was gonna do on Raw, and really, he made wrestling cool again.

Austin is one of my favorites all time. His promos were nothing short of amazing and oftenly hilarious. Not to mention he was one of the greatest brawlers to step foot in WWE and he constantly put on great matches with guys like The Rock and HHH. The magic that Austin created in WWE will probably never be matched again and we'll never see such a great feud like Austin/McMahon re-done.

How can you say no to Austin? Hell of a worker, wrestler, and talker. He had the makings of a star and when he finally got the chance he took the wrestling world by storm.

 

[Goliath Uterus]

Of course Stone Cold should be inducted, the man did it all. He was part of a fantastic tag team in WCW (that should have been pushed harder) then became a solid mid carder who could work with anybody and then went to ECW, had a short but promosing run. THEN he went to WWE where eventually he came to be the man we know and all love, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the beer drinking, bird flipping, foul mouthed, rebellious, born-in-Texas, ass kicking, tough sumbitch, and the fans loved him to death then, and they still love him to this day. Austin could work with anybody and it would be entertaining just cause Stone Cold was in the ring, watching him stun his boss every damn week was one of the main reasons that WWF beat out WCW in the ratings war. He was one of the biggest draws and had one of the best gimmicks that anyone has ever seen, he has highly underrated wrestling skills and very, very good promo skills and charisma, his backstage interviews are some of the most entertaining and memorable segments the WWE has ever seen and thats saying something. All in all, Austin deserves to be in any wrestling hall of fame, and I have a feeling he'll make his way into this one.