For the first eight years of his career, Austin was a 'good mechanic' as he calls it. He was a tights and boots guy with a solid, rugged style who could go to the ring and have a decent match with anybody. Austin had shown flashes of his true personality when tagging with Brian Pillman as The Hollywood Blonds as well as in ECW (where Paul Heyman paid Austin just to deliver promos) but in the WWF he was given the lame gimmick of 'The Ringmaster'. The gimmick sucked, and Austin was treading water. Inspired by a documentary he saw on notorious contract killer 'The Ice Man' Richard Kuklinski, Austin decided to become a more detached, cold and ruthless character. After years of milling about at the bottom of the card, Austin became a sensation as 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Austin's ascendancy to the top was a thing of beauty. Austin's feuds with the likes of The Rock, The Undertaker and Vince McMahon did record business. Austin's t-shirt became the hottest piece of merchandise going, too. He was setting records, selling out arenas and basically laughing all the way to the bank. Nobody saw it coming. Austin, in most people's opinions, was a solid worker with an unspectacular look and style. The fact that he became the biggest thing in the history of the business took everyone by surprise.
