10 Best Things To Come From The WWE's Worst Moments

6. Stone Cold Gets Silly

Stone Cold Steve Austin's heel turn wasn't the sole reason for the gentle financial downturn for WWE in 2001, but 'The Rattlesnake's WrestleMania heel turn felt for many as the grand finale of their flirtation with wrestling after its remarkable mainstream peak in the years prior.

Ultra-violence was the early order of the day to try and get the beloved Austin booed, with his assaults on Jim Ross and Lita used to try and frame him as a desperate bully rather than WWE's sh*tkicking sheriff of old. When that didn't yield results (and Austin's partner in crime Triple H went down with a quad injury), the WWE Champion instead steered hard into some surreal comedy with Kurt Angle that at very least drew enormous critical acclaim.

It fed into a fairly inspired longterm story - the paranoid Champion felt increasingly in need of Vince McMahon's approval in the face of the former Olympian. Feeling betrayed, he joined The Alliance, babyfacing Angle once and for all just in time for a scintillating summer series between the pair.