10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Stone Cold Steve Austin

5. The Ringmaster Was A Really Bad Idea

"And here he comes, the new Million Dollar Champion...the Ringmaster!" - Vince McMahon on commentary. Everybody has to start somewhere in WWE, even Steve Austin. Even though Austin was known as "Stunning" Steve Austin in WCW and had earned a rep as a good worker there, WWE decided to re-introduce him to their audience as "The Ringmaster" managed by Ted Dibiase. You'll notice that in his debut promo from January 1996, he doesn't refer to himself as Steve Austin. Neither do the announcers. He only talked about about what "The Ringmaster" was going to do. Once he started having matches they did use the Steve Austin name because they realized people knew him as that, but at least in the beginning he was only going to be known as The Ringmaster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6TQtjsfp-k While WWE has definitely mentioned that Austin was The Ringmaster when he started, it's not like they're bragging about the fact that they had a poor gimmick for him. It was silly for them to give him Dibiase as a manager too. Austin was always a good talker. Having Dibiase with him hurt him from the beginning because it slowed down his progress, but within a few months he was on his own and the rest is history.