10 Coolest Wrestlers Of All Time
3. Steve Austin
The perfect tonic to the DayGlo 1980s, Steve Austin was the man in black who created the WWF's new verbal, backstage and in-ring language at the onset of the Attitude Era.
He was a total badass in an age of sexy boys. He swore his b*stard head off, dripped attitude, and wrestled with such an intense whirlwind physicality that he swept up and swept aside the dinosaurs of WCW daft enough to hold him down. Austin was unlike anything seen before in the WWF, long the domain of the vanilla hero. He drank beer. He verbally incinerated those left behind the times he changed. He destroyed innocent bystanders in riotous skits. He was an enemy of the establishment and thus a hero to the working classes, who worshipped and lived vicariously through him in their droves. As 'Stone Cold', he never once deviated from his all-black colour scheme. He was a no frills sh*t-kicker with the conviction to earn their trust.
As awesome as Austin's verbiage was, he wasn't all trash-talk. His superb in-ring performances and herculean fortitude endeared himself to his public on a level matching a Kenta Kobashi - and his sheer star power and charisma elevated him above even Hulk Hogan as a box office draw.
Austin was wrestling's best - and arguably coolest - ever all-rounder.