Stone Cold Steve Austin was making $12 million a year at his WWF peak in the Attitude Era. That's hardly surprising when you think of the effect he had on business, taking the company from a big business to a massive business. Things like merchandise sales and attendances didn't just go up, they shot up! As for Raw ratings, they got so big that WCW Nitro was put out of business. That's how much of a draw Austin was, the world wanted to see him. He became culturally relevant in the mainstream. He was on a minimum of five million in those years, and that went up to $12 million at his very hottest, when his T-shirts were selling out, arenas were selling out, and he was main eventing pay per views with huge buy rates. It was his ex-wife Debra who said his earnings ballooned as much as ''as much as $12 million per year" in that period. Did he deserve it? Oh hell yeah! His success is why the business is at the level it is, even a decade after his retirement, the company exists on a foundation built by Stone Cold.
