10 Wrestlers Who Went To War With Vince McMahon
8. Steve Austin
Steve Austin was mighty pissed off in 2002.
The mechanisms in place to keep him over - strong booking, a long-term direction, an approach to promo segments that wasn't lame, patronising and damaging - had started to unravel under Stephanie McMahon's nebulous 'Hollywood' approach to her precious "writing". He expressed as much on Confidential - "piss poor" is how he described the abject state of a product plummeting in viewership - and was punished with a clean, unadvertised loss to Brock Lesnar.
That was the plan: Austin, apoplectic at the idea of burning through a pay-per-view main event out of spite, "took his ball and went home". The idea that his behaviour was unprofessional isn't inaccurate, technically, but it's rather like breaking a quarterback's hand because it wasn't the Superbowl. That is a preposterous analogy for a preposterous decision only Vince McMahon would make. Austin took his aura and went home.
Who won?
Austin didn't do the job, and got a pay day at the very next 'Mania, doing some transitional business - Austin to Rock to Goldberg - on the way out. Business that generated two pay-per-view buys, and not one TV rating.