21 Years Of WWE SmackDown Mistakes

20. 2000 - Steve Austin Spoils Everything

WWE's 24-carat-gold creative and commercial era came to a soul-crushing conclusion in late 2000, with Stone Cold Steve Austin's violent return a particularly dispiriting reminder that the fun of the prior summer had to stop sooner or later.

Joyous months of banter backed up by blistering action from the likes of The Rock, Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian, Too Cool and co were literally beaten half to death by Austin as he wreaked havoc on the whole roster before and after the reveal of Rikishi's "attempted vehicular homicide".

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett