Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American retired professional wrestler, media personality and actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) during the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
"Steve Austin" redirects here. For other people with similar names, see Steve Austin (disambiguation).
Steve Austin
- Media personality
- actor
- producer
- professional wrestler
1989–2003; 2022 (wrestling)
1999–present (media)
-
Kathryn Burrhus(m. 1990; div. 1992)
-
Kristin Feres(m. 2009)
3
6 ft 2 in (188 cm)[2]
252 lb (114 kg)[2]
Victoria, Texas, U.S.[2]
Hollywood, California (as "Stunning" Steve Austin)
September 30, 1989[1]
Austin began his professional wrestling career in 1989, after playing college football at the University of North Texas. He signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1991 and adopted the persona of "Stunning" Steve Austin, a villainous in-ring technician, and he won the WCW World Television Championship and the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship twice each, alongside the WCW World Tag Team Championship and NWA World Tag Team Championship once each with Brian Pillman (as the Hollywood Blondes). After a brief stint in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Austin signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1995.
In the WWF, Austin was repackaged as a short-tempered, brash, anti-establishment antihero named "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, becoming the most popular wrestler of the Attitude Era off the back of his feud with company chairman Mr. McMahon. He won the WWF Championship six times, the WWF Intercontinental Championship twice, the Million Dollar Championship once, and the WWF Tag Team Championship four times, making him the fifth WWF Triple Crown Champion. He is also a record three-time Royal Rumble winner, won the 1996 King of the Ring, and headlined multiple WWF pay-per-view events, including WrestleMania (its flagship event) four times. He was forced to retire from in-ring competition in 2003 after multiple knee injuries and a serious neck injury at the 1997 SummerSlam event, making sporadic appearances ever since. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, and returned for a one-off match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022.
Austin hosts the podcast The Steve Austin Show (2013–present), and the video podcast Broken Skull Sessions (2019–present) available on the WWE Network and Peacock. He collaborates with El Segundo Brewing on Broken Skull IPA and Broken Skull American Lager. He also hosted the reality competition series Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge (2014–2017) and Straight Up Steve Austin (2019–2021).
Early life[edit]
Austin was born Steven James Anderson in Austin, Texas,[3][4] on December 18, 1964.[5] His parents, Beverly (née Harrison) and James Anderson, divorced when he was around a year old. His mother moved to Edna, Texas, where Austin would spend most of his childhood,[6] and she married Ken Williams in 1968.[7] Austin adopted his stepfather's surname and legally changed his name to Steven James Williams, after he was legally adopted, though he would legally change it again to Steve Austin later in life.[6] He has a younger sister named Jennifer and three brothers named Scott, Kevin, and Jeff.[8] Kevin is less than a year younger than Austin, leading Austin to theorize in his autobiography that their father may have left because he could not handle another child so soon.[9] After finishing his education at Edna High School, he got a football scholarship to Wharton County Junior College followed by a full scholarship to the University of North Texas.[8] He played originally as a linebacker before suffering a knee injury,[10][11] prompting him to switch to play as a defensive end.[12][13]
The first wrestling events Austin watched were those produced by Houston Wrestling and run by Paul Boesch,[14] and Austin would later say, "I fell in love with the business when I was seven or eight years old. All I ever wanted to be was a professional wrestler. Wrestling was the biggest thing in my life."[15] When he moved to attend university, he was living approximately 30 miles from the Dallas Sportatorium, a building he later described fondly as a "magnificent shithole of a building".[16] It was here that World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) ran shows on a Friday night.[17]
Legacy[edit]
Since his retirement in 2003, Austin has been widely regarded and cited as one of the greatest and most influential professional wrestlers of all time. Sports Illustrated ranked him third on their top 101 greatest wrestlers of all-time list.[131] In 2020, SPORTbible ranked Austin as the greatest wrestler of all time.[132] He has been described as the most influential wrestler in Raw history,[133] and the poster boy for the Attitude Era.[134][135][136] Several former world champions have named Austin as part of their "Mount Rushmore" of wrestling, including The Rock,[137] The Undertaker,[138] Hulk Hogan,[139] Ric Flair,[140] and John Cena,[141] and a 2012 poll conducted by WWE saw Austin picked second on a fan voted version of the concept.[142] When Vince McMahon inducted Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, he referred to Austin as "the greatest WWE superstar of all time".[143]
Austin was the biggest box office draw in WWE since Hulk Hogan. He headlined WrestleMania X-Seven, the first WrestleMania to achieve a 1 million buy rate. The event was universally acclaimed and is often regarded as the greatest pay-per-view in professional wrestling history. It is also noted as the pinnacle of the Attitude Era, occurring just a week after WWE bought out their competition, WCW. [144]
During his early years as a wrestler, Austin was a technical wrestler. However, after Owen Hart accidentally injured Austin's neck in 1997, Austin changed his style from technical to brawler.[145][146] His most famous finishing move is the Stone Cold Stunner,[147] and he credits Michael Hayes with introducing the move to him.[148] Following his retirement, he gave permission to Kevin Owens to use the move as his own finisher, but both have downplayed comparisons between the two.[149][150][151] During his time as The Ringmaster, he used the Million Dollar Dream as a finishing move since it was Ted DiBiase's finisher. During his time in WCW, Austin used the Stun Gun (a move innovated by Eddie Gilbert as the Hot Shot) and the Hollywood & Vine (a standing modified figure-four leglock) as his finishers.[152]
Sporting a bald head and goatee, coupled with his ring attire which consisted of plain black trunks and boots,[153][154] Austin relied solely on his personality to become popular.[153][155] As "Stone Cold", Austin was portrayed on-screen as an anti-authority rebel who would consistently cuss and defy the company rules and guidelines of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. One of Austin's taunts during the Attitude Era was to show the middle finger.[156] To complement his persona, Austin was the recipient of two additional nicknames, commentator and friend Jim Ross dubbed him "The Texas Rattlesnake" due to the character's "mannerisms, the motivation, the mindset, you can't trust this son of a bitch",[157] while Austin later named himself "The Bionic Redneck" on account of the injuries he had suffered to his arms, neck and knees.[158] Austin has said he is "eternally indebted" to Ross for helping his character become popular.[159]
On both his podcasts, Austin credited Bret Hart as the wrestler who got him over the most, had most influence on his early wrestling style, and who he had his best matches with.[160][161] Austin would later go on to induct Bret Hart into the WWE Hall of Fame.[162] The match between Austin and Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 has been widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all time,[163] and has been voted by IGN as the greatest match in WrestleMania history, and was number 1 among their list of top 20 WrestleMania matches of all time.[164]
A 12-minute match between Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin drew a 9.5 rating on June 28, 1999. It stands as the highest-rated segment in Raw history.[165]
According to the data collected by US-bookies, Stone Cold Steve Austin is still WWE’s best merchandise seller earning an estimated $3,600,000 from merchandise on WWE Shop site. John Cena takes the #2 spot, earning almost $2,700,000 from WWE Shop.[166] 'Austin 3:16' T-shirt is amongst the best selling T-shirts in wrestling history[167]
In August 2001, Austin began using his catchphrase "What?" to interrupt wrestlers who were trying to speak and to allow fan participation chants.[168] Audiences at WWE shows have since widely used this chant during performer promos,[169][170] and Austin has stated his regret at inventing the chant.[171] Austin's entrance theme was composed by Jim Johnston, who said that in composing the song, he looked upon Austin's persona as an "ass-kicker guy who did not enter a room with subtlety. He needed something that reflected that".[172] Looking to capture the unpredictable nature of the character, Johnston thought of using the sounds of a car crash and smashing glass, and recalled that he instantly felt the theme fit the character and that "it felt like it had already been his theme for years".[172] Austin says the song was inspired by Rage Against the Machine's song "Bulls on Parade".[173] The theme song was revamped in 2000, with the rock band Disturbed recording the new version, used for the first time at the Unforgiven PPV event in September.[174] Austin's entrance theme is regarded as one of the greatest of all time,[175][176][177][178] and one which defined the Attitude Era.[179]
Other media[edit]
Acting and hosting[edit]
Austin had guest roles on Celebrity Deathmatch and Seasons 4 and 5 of CBS's Nash Bridges, where he played San Francisco Police Department Inspector Jake Cage. He has appeared on V.I.P and Dilbert. His motion picture debut was in a supporting role as Guard Dunham in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard. Austin had his first starring film role, as Jack Conrad, a dangerous convict awaiting execution in a Salvadoran prison, who takes part in an illegal deathmatch game that is being broadcast to the public in the 2007 action film The Condemned. In 2010, Austin appeared in The Expendables as Dan Paine, the right-hand man for the primary antagonist of the film James Munroe, played by Eric Roberts, and bodyguard with Gary Daniels who plays The Brit. Shortly after Austin re-teamed with Eric Roberts and Gary Daniels in Hunt to Kill. It was his last American theatrical release film until 2013. Austin appeared as Hugo Panzer on television series Chuck. He has also starred in Damage, The Stranger, Tactical Force, Knockout, Recoil, Maximum Conviction, and The Package.[180]
In April 2013, Austin started a weekly podcast named The Steve Austin Show which is family-friendly, while his second podcast The Steve Austin Show – Unleashed! is more adult-oriented.[181] As of May 2015, the podcasts averaged 793,000 downloads a week and had nearly 200 million overall downloads.[182] In February 2018, Austin announced that the "Unleashed" version of the podcast had been dropped and merged with the family-friendly version in order to appeal to more sponsors.[183] The podcast has also transitioned to a live broadcast for the WWE Network (podcasted after a short exclusivity period) with monthly specials since 2014.[184] In November 2019, Austin began an interview segment on the WWE Network called the Broken Skull Sessions, taking its name from the ranch owned by Austin.[185] The premiere episode featured The Undertaker.[186]
Austin hosted the reality competition show Redneck Island on CMT, which began in June 2012[187] and concluded with its fifth season in April 2016.[188] In July 2014, his reality competition show Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge premiered on CMT.[189] The show entered into its fifth season in September 2017.[190]
Personal life[edit]
Austin played college football at the University of North Texas. Austin married his high school girlfriend Kathryn Burrhus on November 24, 1990. However, he later pursued a relationship with English wrestling manager Jeanie Clarke, with whom he was working. His marriage to Burrhus was annulled on August 7, 1992,[192] and he married Clarke on December 18. They had two daughters, Stephanie (born 1992) and Cassidy (born 1996), before divorcing on May 10, 1999.[193][194] Austin also adopted Clarke's daughter Jade from a previous relationship with Chris Adams.[193][194] In 2010, Austin became a grandfather for the first time when Jade gave birth to a son.[195] Since then Jade had two more children with her husband Adam Bryniarski, a British independent wrestler.[196] Bryniarski died in 2022 at age 41.[197]
On September 13, 2000, Austin married wrestling manager Debra Marshall.[198] On June 15, 2002, Marshall called the police to the couple's home. She told officers that Austin had hit her and then stormed out of the house before police arrived.[199][200] An arrest warrant was issued by the Bexar County district attorney's office on August 12 and Austin handed himself in the following day, at which point he was charged with domestic abuse.[201][202] He pleaded no contest on November 25, and was given a year's probation, a $1,000 fine, and ordered to carry out 80 hours of community service.[203] In 2007, Marshall told Fox News that[204] WWE knew of the abuse, but worked to keep her from revealing that Austin had hit her as it would cost the company millions of dollars.[205] Austin responded to the incident in 2003 through WWE Raw Magazine, citing his regret over their relationship breaking down and stating his love for Marshall. He also ridiculed allegations that the incident was alcohol-related.[206] He filed for divorce from Marshall on July 22, 2002, which was finalized on February 5, 2003.[207]
In March 2003, during the hours leading up to WrestleMania XIX, Austin was rushed to the hospital for twitchiness and a high heart rate.[208]
In 2003, Austin denied allegations that he was an alcoholic, stating that wrestling fans had mistaken his character's excessive consumption of beer as a real-life trait of his and insisting that he drinks responsibly.[206] In March 2004, he was accused of assaulting his then-girlfriend Tess Broussard during a dispute at his home in San Antonio, Texas, according to a police report. No arrests were made and no charges were filed in the case.[209]
In 2007, the Wrestling Observer newsletter reported that Austin had legally changed his name to Steve Austin.[210]
In late 2009, Austin married his fourth wife, Kristin Feres.[8][211]
In 2014, Austin voiced support for same-sex marriage on his podcast.[212] Also in 2014, Austin released his first beer, Broken Skull IPA, with El Segundo Brewing Company in California. In March 2022, they released another collaboration, Broken Skull American Lager.[213][214] The beers are distributed in 35 states with El Segundo brewing over 5,000 barrels of Broken Skull annually.[215]
