Awful Gimmick: Steve Austin was brought into WWE to be a 'good hand' or a 'mechanic'. That is, someone who can work with anyone and produce a decent match but who is not in line for a major push. Austin worked mainly undercard matches as The Ringmaster (literally the master of the ring) and didn't make any waves in the company. Austin knew the gimmick sucked. The fans clearly thought the gimmick sucked. The WWE were apparently indifferent. It was up to Austin to change his fortunes... How He Survived It: He went to WWE management and basically told them how lame the Ringmaster was. He didn't want or need the Million Dollar Man as a mouthpiece or the Million Dollar Championship belt, either. He wanted to portray a character similar to ruthless contract killer Richard Kuklinski, a man nicknamed 'The Ice Man', whom Austin had watched a documentary on. He told WWE about his idea and they returned with a list of names so bad (Otto Von Ruthless? Fang McFrost? Ice Dagger?) that he and Brian Pillman could not contain their laughter. Still, Austin persisted with the idea and when his then-wife told him to drink his tea before it went 'stone cold', the pieces finally fell into place. Over the next two years, Austin would grow into the biggest star in the business. As the hell-raising, middle finger-giving Stone Cold Steve Austin, he had a gimmick which really connected with the WWE's burgeoning 18-30 male demographic. If he hadn't have demanded a change from The Ringmaster, his fortunes (and those of the entire business) would have been a lot different.
