1. He Walked Out On WWE In 2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKMT2zHdmbw When Steve Austin walked out of WWE in the spring of 2002, it was by far the biggest story in wrestling at that time. Austin was the unquestioned top guy in WWE for the previous five years and as one of the biggest draws of all time (maybe THE biggest in his prime) it was a huge story that he simply took his ball and went home. The story goes that WWE wanted Austin to put over Brock Lesnar on an episode of Raw (Lesnar was only on the main roster for a couple of months) in the build up to the King of the Ring. Austin didn't like that idea, so he told them no and he went home. Here's how
he explained it on a recent edition of Chris Jericho's podcast. "Jim Ross told me creative and he told me that they wanted Brock to beat me. And Im thinking, okay hold it. Im drawing stupid money right now. Obviously WWE had spent a lot of money getting me into this position. I busted my ass getting myself in this position. Guys that draw stupid money dont just happen overnight. So now all of a sudden you want me to do a job for a guy, now I love Brock Lesnar and hes a monster, and as soon as he walked in the door everybody saw massive potential in the guy, but for me to do a job for him without any kind of buildup? A match but no two or three weeks talking about it? A pay per view match is what it was." Austin explained further: "I just said, piss on these guys. Why would they try and do this to me? I got back on an airplane and flew to San Antonio." His point did make sense. Doing the match with Lesnar with no build wasn't a smart move. However, not showing up was the wrong move on Austin's part. On the June 17, 2002 edition of Raw, WWE didn't shy away from talking about Steve Austin going home. The Rock showed up in the ring when Vince McMahon was in the ring talking about the Austin situation. Rock did a promo putting over all the talent that wanted to be there and that all the performers loved to be in WWE. The Rock stood in the ring and said "Austin can take his ball and go home but as far as The Rock is concerned, this is home." It was WWE's way of making the fans happy by having The Rock show up in place of Austin and letting them know that even though Austin was gone, The Rock was still there. Austin went on to explain on the Jericho podcast that he realizes he made a mistake in going home: "It was stupid because you have to own up to some responsibility and accountability and show up. Honor your deal. Youre packed with the boys and your job. So I should have showed up like a man, come up with a solution. Could have been a different solution, could have been just dont even do the match, but show up and talk to Vince face to face, solve the problem in some way or fashion, and get through it like a grown man. Austin returned to WWE in early 2003, had his last match with The Rock at WrestleMania 19 and has been on good terms with WWE ever since. Most fans know about Austin's walk out, but it's not like WWE is going to mention it very often or brag about it as one of his career highlights. In his career full of amazing moments, it was clearly the biggest low point that there was.