10 Horrible Decisions That Gave Us Great Wrestling

10. Eric Bischoff Fires Steve Austin

From all accounts, €˜Stunning€™ Steve Austin wasn€™t a happy camper in WCW. Sidelined with a nasty triceps injury, Austin was at home recuperating when Eric Bischoff asked for him to be telephoned to come in to the television tapings to cut a promo or two to camera. The idea was that Austin€™s character be kept alive on television until he was healthy enough to wrestle again. Austin was not receptive to this fairly reasonable request (he only lived a short drive away, so it wouldn€™t have taken longer than a couple of hours, door to door), and told his wife to tell them he wasn€™t there. Unfortunately, he was heard saying so on the other end of the phone. Rookie mistake, Steve! Bischoff was furious, and swung completely the other way on Austin. Whereas before he€™d wanted to keep Austin reasonably hot so as to utilise him more when he returned, now he just wanted him gone, and fired him immediately. Austin was absolutely livid. A short time later, however, he received a call from his old friend Paul Heyman, who asked whether he fancied going to Philadelphia and performing for ECW. Austin told him he couldn€™t wrestle just yet, but Paul didn€™t care - he just wanted a few promos for now, to get people interested. They could talk about wrestling when he was fit to return to the ring. That was fine by Austin. Despite the fact that he€™d just been fired for refusing to do exactly that for his own boss, and in the town he lived in, he travelled all the way to Philadelphia and cut some angry, passionate promos for broadcast on ECW television. Unbeknownst to any of them, Austin was's far away from becoming €˜Stone Cold€™ Steve Austin, and those promos were instrumental in helping to shape the voice of the character.