10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Raw From 1996

10. They Really Didn't Capitalise On Austin 3:16

The popular WWE narrative suggests Steve Austin won that 1996 King Of The Ring and then immediately became a big deal. That's not the case. In fact, the immediate aftermath of that tourney win was dire for 'Stone Cold'. He lost to The Undertaker by DQ 24 hours later on the 24 June Raw then didn't appear on the show again until 22 July.

The presentation of him when he did show up was more worrying.

Austin played second fiddle to Goldust's interference against 'Taker, then got bumped down to third because Brian Pillman was busy working his new 'Loose Cannon' gimmick. The outright ignorance of Austin (who had just won the biggest tournament of the year, remember) is stunning to revisit.

It's been noted before that Austin suffered through some stumbling blocks after becoming 'King' and had a useless 'Free For All' scrap with Yokozuna at SummerSlam, but studying his career right before that is similarly startling.