13. Michael Hayes Gave Steve Austin The Stone Cold Stunner
After Steve Austin reinvented himself as Stone Cold, there was still one piece of the puzzle missing: a new finishing move. He was still using the Million Dollar Dream sleeper hold, a remnant of his ill-fated spell as Ted DiBiases Ringmaster. Wanting to disassociate himself from DiBiase and feeling an impactful move was better than a submission, Austin racked his brain trying to come up with something. On May 27, 1996, Michael Hayes came up to Austin and told him, I think I have come up with a better finishing move for you. He then demonstrated what would later become known as the Stone Cold Stunner, the perfect sudden-fire impact hold for Austins brash, in-your-face character. However, Hayes had not come up with the move at all. He had actually stolen it from Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis). Ace had sent in a tape of a match of his from Japan with the intention of securing a WWF job, but Hayes had stole his Ace Crusher finisher and gave it to Austin. Stone Cold had a new finishing move that helped catapult him into the stratosphere, while Ace never did get that WWF wrestling contract. He did secure a top-level office job with the company years later mind, so it did not work out too badly for him in the end.