This day in Pro Wrestling history: December 18th
Today’s edition of ‘This day...’ celebrates the birthdays of three WWE legends - two of whom are already in the Hall of Fame and the other might follow suit soon enough.
It is on December 18 that Stone Cold Steve Austin, Trish Stratus and Rob Van Dam celebrate their birthdays and this article is dedicated to each of them.
While Stone Cold is considered to be one of the greatest performers of all time, Trish is widely acknowledged as the greatest female competitor in the WWE. RVD, meanwhile, was the face of the new ECW in the WWE and is the only man to have held the WWE and ECW Championships at the same time.
Let us take a look at the careers of the trio on their birthday:
#1 Stone Cold Steve Austin – Born December 18th, 1964
Born in Victoria, Texas – Austin had a run in WCW before he joined the WWE. Austin was part of Paul Heyman’s Dangerous Alliance in the Atlanta-based promotion and went by the ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin moniker.
He would capture the WCW United States title during his time there before getting fired by Eric Bischoff as the latter did not see Austin as a big star. Austin would move on to ECW where his promos would strike a chord with the audience before departing for the WWE in late 1995.
Upon joining the company, he would be renamed the Ringmaster and ran around with Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Championship. When Dibiase moved to WCW, Austin finally got the opportunity to display his real-life Texas redneck persona onscreen.
Austin would win the King of the Ring tournament and usher in the ‘3:16’ era, with his feud with Vince McMahon becoming the greatest feud in WWE history.
Austin would go on to win the WWE Championship as well as the Intercontinental and Tag team titles in the company and was the undisputed No. 1 guy up until his retirement in 2003 due to recurring neck injuries.