10 Wrestlers Who Couldn’t Hide Their Anger At Bad Creative
1. Steve Austin Goes OFF
Steve Austin was the biggest drawing card in the history of pro wrestling in the United States. Hulk Hogan enjoyed more years on top, but in 1998, Austin drew more for a shorter period of time.
In 1999, his star power was so incandescent that he was almost tested with wretched creative - he sympathised with Vince McMahon’s daughter and made up with Vince himself as he navigated the dismal Corporate Ministry saga - and still drew the highest ratings in the history of WWE’s flagship programme.
He spent much of 2000 injured, and returned to a different promotion, almost. It’s strange that 2002 is known as the launch of the ‘Ruthless Aggression’ era. That year is more Attitude Era “coded” than 2000. Some awful stuff happened in 2000, to be absolutely clear, but compared to 1998, the year was irreverent, genuinely quite funny and, with the addition of Mick Foley as Commissioner, even somewhat wholesome.
Austin returned as a dour guy so hellbent on revenge that he’d kick anybody’s ass, whether they were a credible suspect in the hit-and-run or otherwise. He interfered with the new wavelength - the WWF didn’t just turn him at WrestleMania X-Seven in some for-the-sake-of-it Vince Russo twist - but the fans quickly gained perspective.
Austin was destroyed as a megastar in 2001. That’s when the Russo analogy becomes apt. He turned often enough to make the Big Show look like Ricky Steamboat, and when things got no better after the Invasion was put out of its misery, Austin, on the Byte This web show, went off.
“The writing’s pretty sh*tty. I don’t know if anything is gonna change with the creative bastards, but something better and damn fast”.
All of those critics you think are “biased” against WWE: Austin 3:16 says he buried them first.