10 Biggest Stone Cold Steve Austin "What Ifs" In WWE

As Stunning Steve Austin told it on ECW, it was the secretary of Eric Bischoff's secretary, who left a voicemail on Austin's answering machine telling him to call Bischoff, who then fired him over the phone. With Austin fired he would work a few gigs at ECW, where he aired his grievances and showed flashes of what would become his disgruntled Stone Cold character, lamenting that "the politics in WCW kept the biggest potential superstar in wrestling on the g*ddamn ground!" Once he switched crossed the river that was ECW onto the land of WWE, he was proven right.

Had Eric decided to keep him though, Austin would at least get a steady paycheck, even though he admits that stability led him into becoming complacent. WWE, though? Not having Austin at all could have led to their downfall. More interesting though is the idea that Austin still could have broken out while in WCW, slipping through as either a member of the NWO, or maybe being a popular bastion of hope against them, like Sting, Goldberg, and DDP.

One thing is for sure though, when Eric made that phone call, he signed WCW's death warrant. Many point to ATM Eric's reckless spending and insistence on giving wrestlers guaranteed money, it was this one bit of austerity where they lost wrestling's most valuable commodity.