The Many Faces Of Steve Austin - Ranked From Worst To Best

11. The Ringmaster

When you consider how modestly Steve Austin’s WWE career started, it’s almost miraculous that he became one of the biggest professional wrestlers of all-time. He joined the company after moving on from ECW in late 1995, and made his debut in January 1996. Handed the Million Dollar Championship on his first night with the company, Austin wrestled as The Ringmaster, with Ted DiBiase as his manager.

The Ringmaster was as bland as bland gets, and DiBiase’s presence rendered him borderline mute. The gimmick was little more than “guy who is pretty good at wrestling,” and while Austin was regularly churning-out good technical matches, and the Ringmaster persona had few traits strong enough to draw the fans in. Austin was going nowhere, and he knew it.

Fatu accidentally eliminated Austin from the Royal Rumble when he was originally supposed to make the final four, but The Ringmaster was a dead-end gimmick. Less than two months into his WWE employment, Austin asked for a change. The company responded with a hideous list of names including Otto Von Ruthless, Chilly McFreeze, and Fang McFrost, but “Stone Cold” was soon born, and thus began Austin’s rise to greatness.