10 Weird Periods WWE Icons Would Like You To Forget
6. Stone Cold Steve Austin (2002)
On paper, Stone Cold Steve Austin's final year as an active wrestler wasn't that bad. Stone Cold was never far away from the world title, and he also feuded with the New World Order going into WrestleMania. His win/loss record remained as strong as ever. Sure, he took his ball and went home for the second half of the year, but it wasn't as if he was shunted down the card and couldn't deal with losing anymore.
All that aside, that first half of 2002 is a great example of how even the most iconic of superstars can find themselves treading water with nothing to do. Austin had feuded with everybody there was to feud with. The only fresh matches on the horizon were bouts with Hogan, Hall and Nash. Politics scuppered the former, injury the latter, and the washed-up ghost of Scott Hall was never going to give Austin much to work with, Stunner selling aside.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is a strong candidate for wrestling's greatest ever, but his final months as an in-ring competitor were a strange sort of purgatory that is often forgotten when looking back at his career. Long may that blind spot remain.