10 Wrestling Storylines That Were Much Darker Than You Think
6. Steve Austin's Heel Turn
Throughout 2001, the WWF overcorrected with the terrible idea that was the Steve Austin heel turn.
Austin had peaked as a babyface - he felt too often like a miserable presence in the fun, heightened Chris Kreski-penned universe - but the Rock was venturing elsewhere, and while Austin was cold, he was still hotter than everybody else. The grim truth is that everything had peaked. WrestleMania X-Seven is held aloft as the end of the glory days, but they were already gone. The build was salvaged by a video package. Not unlike a latter-day NXT TakeOver event, only without about 346 fewer finisher kick-outs.
Because the heel turn (despite being performed amazingly well) did not work - nobody wanted to boo Steve Austin because he was Steve Austin - the WWF tried to portray Austin as a remorseless sociopath. Nobody loved to hate him. He wasn't an expert sh*thouse who cheated the faces with cunning and a sh*t-eating grin.
He smashed people over and over again with steel chairs, looking thoroughly miserable. Steve Austin - Steve Austin! - wasn't remotely entertaining.
Before a second over-correction turned Austin into a clown, who failed to generate any meaningful heat for a second consecutive time, one victim of his disturbing assaults was Lita.
Bleak at the time, it is significantly darker in retrospect, equipped with the knowledge of his abuse of then-wife Debra. It's an under-reported aspect of Austin's legacy; while it isn't a contest, and all domestic abuse is reprehensible, the horrific depths to which Austin actually went are too often glossed over.