I thought I remembered hearing that Austin got the name from his wife (at the time). Something about him trying to come up with a new moniker at the kitchen table. His wife brought him some tea, then said "...drink your tea before it gets stone cold...". Austin liked that term, and decided to use it. Something like that?
I had never heard this Glacier thing before; I never heard any other names knocked around for him. I'm not saying you're wrong, I just had never heard about it before. Neither had I heard that Austin "ripped it off" or something like that. Was Austin even still working for WCW when they were developing Glacier's character? I thought he had been future-endeavored long before that, and was working for ECW if not WWF at that time. Maybe I'm wrong, I can't remember that far back....I've killed a lot of brain cells over the years, LOL!
Maybe it was just two people having the same idea, that kind of thing happens all the time. Remember when John Fogerty got sued by his former record label for sounding too much like John Fogerty? Haha, maybe not the exact same thing, but people have similar ideas all the time...that's why lawyers make so much money (they ALWAYS have clients to defend).
I don't think the name (or moniker) would have made much of a difference in Austin's career. The guy was always destined for wrestling-greatness, regardless of what he was called.
Personally, I can't picture Glacier being called "Stone Cold". Just plain "Cold" would have been better for him...probably even better than "Glacier". Man, I remember WCW trying to make him big...probably to eventually feud with Mortis (wasn't Mortis a Mortal Kombat rip-off too? ...at least in WCW's eyes?). Both of those characters were pretty bad, but I think Glacier was the worst. At least Mortis had James Mitchell (or whatever WCW called him, I can't remember now). Plus I liked Kanyon a lot too.
In the late 1990s, I was so over Mortal Kombat. I played the shit out of the THQ/AKI wrestling games though (WCW vs. nWo, WCW Revenge, then later Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy), and also a lot of Tekken (Tekken 3 at the time, to be specific). They should have made a King character (a Tekken-ripoff) instead. That probably would have been more popular at the time. Couldn't you see an awesome character doing stuff like this in a wrestling ring? :
[YOUTUBE]NXF9mEMYYKk[/YOUTUBE]
