10 Wrestlers Who Transcended The Business
5. Steve Austin
Anyone who doesn't think that Hulk Hogan is the personification of wrestling probably thinks that because they believe that title belongs to Stone Cold Steve Austin.
The Rattlesnake was the WWF's biggest star during the Attitude Era and helped shift the product from a family-friendly show to the bloody, violent, teen-oriented landscape that many wrestling fans still pine for to this day.
Austin was the biggest star in wrestling when wrestling was at its most prominent. As a result, anyone who was a teenager in the 1990s will have probably heard of him, either through watching wrestling, hearing about him from their friends, or by the countless TV, movie, and media appearances that Austin made.
Stone Cold was everywhere during the Attitude Era. Magazine covers, talk shows, video games - Austin's face was on anything and everything the WWF could get their hands on and he remains one of the most recognisable wrestlers of all time, even to people who've never seen a single one of his matches.
From MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch to his appearance in The Expendables, Austin has shared the screen with plenty of famous faces and has even dipped his toes into reality TV, hosting Ninja Warrior-style show, Broken Skull Challenge, between 2014 and 2017.