10 Wrestlers Who Turned During Championship Reigns
4. Stone Cold Steve Austin (2001)
It looked as though The WCW/ECW Alliance had all the cards when they convinced WWE Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin to turn on his teammates at the climax to a thrilling Invasion pay-per-view.
In reality, this was one of several early desperate acts that foreshadowed the collapse of the biggest promotional free hit in professional wrestling history.
The problems were manifold.
As noted, Austin's a*s-kicking return just days earlier had gone down so well that the whole chaotic scene served more as a rejection of the heel gimmick that had been persisted with since WrestleMania. The heel gimmick he suddenly brought back in fairly nonsensical fashion for the sake of an unexpected twist ending to the show.
Austin had zero love for WCW and had only used his ECW status as a platform for the run he was still on in WWE. Added to that, he'd kicked the living sh*t out of those Alliance goobers to sell his commitment to the WWE cause. None were booked to asked for receipts during all those segments where they kissed his *ss in the months that followed.