10 WWE Superstar Gimmicks That Nearly Turned Out So Differently
7. Steve Austin
Fang McFrost. Ice Dagger. When Steve Austin pitched the idea for a cold-blooded character in 1996, he was surely expecting the creative geniuses within the company to come up with something that would help make him one of the biggest stars in the industry. That was not the case, however, as he was greeted with a list of names and monikers that, as he described in his 2011 WWE Home Video release Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All-Time,were suck ass. He hated every one of the ideas and quickly came to the realization that all preconceptions about coming to WWE and having the genius that was Vince McMahon instantly turn you into a star were false. Dismayed by the creative process he had watched in action, he sat at home with then-wife Jeannie. It was she that recommended that he drink his tea before it became stone cold, thus setting in motion one of the biggest runs in wrestling history with one of the most recognizable nicknames ever. The Ringmaster gimmick was bad enough. It is the type of gimmick that easily could have derailed Austin from the get-go. But to think that someone actually thought McFrost, Dagger or even Otto von Ruthless was a good idea goes to show just how out of touch WWE Creative was with its audience and the times by the middle of the 1990s. Austin, arguably the biggest Superstar of all-time, could have been left at the mercy of an oblivious boss.
Erik Beaston is a freelance pro wrestling writer who likes long walks in the park, dandelions and has not quite figured out that this introduction is not for Match.com. He resides in Parts Unknown, where he hosts weekly cookouts with Kane, The Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango and The Boogeyman. Be jealous.
