9 Characters Who Saved Failing TV Shows
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin - WWE Monday Night Raw
One of the longest-running active programs on television, WWE Raw might've been destined for the dust bin -- along with the entirety of Vince McMahon's falling empire -- had it not been for one man: Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Like Hulk Hogan a decade before him, Austin became the face of the company at a time when interest in wrestling culture was at a low. It simply wasn't "cool" to tune in and watch flamboyantly-dressed dudes bounce each other off the turnbuckle in an overly-dramatic fashion.
Stone Cold signified a serious cultural shift in the industry, forgoing the bright colors, doofy gimmicks, and squeaky clean images that mid-90s WWE was still trying to push. This guy wore black and had a smoking skull as part of his logo, he cussed out his opponents, chugged beer, and beat the living crap out of his boss on the regular.
During the now-infamous Monday Night Wars, in which WWE was going head-to-head with rival brand WCW in a battle for ratings supremacy, Stone Cold ushered in the so-called "Attitude Era," which remains one of the most aggressively-beloved periods in the company's history.
Pretty much every wrestling fan -- and even Vince McMahon himself -- can agree that without Stone Cold storming through the curtain every week, the WWE as we know it may have failed to exist, and WWE Raw would be little more than a relic.