Stone Cold Steve Austin's 5 Greatest Matches
Without Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWE would likely have not been around anymore.
WWE was going through the worst financial phase in the promotion's history, while its biggest rival at the time WCW was flourishing on the back of the nWo led by Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. There were legitimate fears that WWE would have to shut down, if they did not manage to turn things around quickly.
It was at this time that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin arrived out of nowhere, raised hell and left. And by the time the dust had settled, he had changed professional wrestling forever.
Stone Cold was the main inspiration behind and the driving force of the WWE's most beloved period, the Attitude Era.
Certain sections of fans and experts note that the Attitude Era was the most popular era of professional wrestling, and may probably never be outshone by any other pro-wrestling company...not even WWE itself!
Furthermore, it's praiseworthy that Stone Cold achieved all this with the help of unique blend of charisma, personality and wrestling talent. However, most people seem to forget how great of a wrestler Austin when talking of his greatness.
He is remembered as the bad-ass, brawler from the Lone Star State who used to beat up his tyrannical boss every week. Yet Stone Cold could more than hold his own in the mat wrestling department against the very best of them.
Here we look back at 5 of the greatest matches of Stone Cold's career. The matches have been selected not only based on their in ring quality but also on their memorability and long term impact--
#5 Stone Cold vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 14)
At this point, Shawn Michaels was severely injured. His back was hurt to the point where this would be his last wrestling match before returning for a second run four years later.
Yet the Heartbreak Kid stuck around to steal the show at Wrestlemania for one last time (or so we had thought back then) and dropped the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Austin, ushering in the Attitude Era.
Shawn's willingness to do the job for Austin might be questioned with rumors existing that The Undertaker had waited backstage during the match with taped fists to make sure that Michaels did the right thing. But at the end of the day, Shawn Michaels did put on an extremely good match considering the condition his body was in back then and Austin became the WWF World Heavyweight Champion.
Shawn must have felt that this was the last time he would ever be wrestling and wanted to deliver a "vintage Shawn Michaels performance" before silently riding into the sunset.
"Iron" Mike Tyson's presence as the special enforcer added an extra dimension to the contest. Austin and Tyson had had their differences leading up to Wrestlemania and the fans were wondering if the two would come to blows on the grandest stage of them all.
No such brawl materialized as the two men joined forces at the end of the contest, and Tyson knocked out Shawn Michaels, who to his credit sold it like he had been hit by a truck.
One year after sowing the seeds of the Attitude Era at Wrestlemania 13, Austin had finally realized his dream. While this might not have been either man's greatest in ring contest, the occasion and the long term impact that it would go on to have on the wrestling industry gives it a different level of historical significance.