20 WTF Moments In Stone Cold Steve Austin's WWE Career

16. Getting Fired From WCW

Although it doesn't necessarily sound like it, Steve Austin had had a pretty decent career in WCW. Well, that is, until he finally had to give up the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship chase after some early knee problems forced him out of the company from late 1994 until the beginning of 1995. By the time he came back, the United States title was ironically vacant, and although Austin got his revenge against Duggan, he ultimately fell short of grabbing the gold. It got even worse from there, as he'd soon irritate his quadriceps and have to leave again. While sitting around at home getting better, Eric Bischoff, then partly in charge of WCW, invited Austin to show up on an episode of Nitro to cut a promo and keep him in the fans' respective memory. However, when he refused, Bischoff fired him on the spot during their phone conversation. Even more confusing is that at the time, Bischoff supposedly believed that Austin failed to be very "marketable". The decision to fire Austin would backfire big time about a year later when Austin's career erupted in WWE.