10 Times WWE Were OBSESSED With Pointless Power
3. Sheriff Stone Cold Steve Austin
The central problem with Sheriff Austin wasn't that the character didn't really make any sense, nor even that it rather pathetically retconned a storyline they'd sold a pay-per-view on just weeks earlier. The central problem with Sheriff Austin was that Triple H - Reign Of Terror lowest-of-the-low Triple H - was able to score points in promos at his expense.
'The Game' mocked Austin's toy badge and plastic position during a back-and-forth between the pair on Raw, and he was right to do so. 'The Rattlesnake' had assumed the position a month on from his team's loss to Team Bischoff at 2003's Survivor Series. The Co-General Managers were "Co" no mo', and with that when Stone Cold's right to be on the show, make decisions or attack people if he'd been physically provoked.
As "Sheriff", he returned to a position of power despite an even sillier title, and no longer even had the shackles of needing to be struck first before he could drop everybody with Stunners. He also had a quad bike and the aforementioned toy badge, just in case the last vestiges of a generation's youth weren't entirely dissolved by the look.