Now we're talking. Throughout his career in USWA, WCW and ECW, Austin had fine blond wisps of hair dancing atop his handsome, unspoiled features, but by 1995 his hairline was every bit as thin and unconvincing as his initial WWE gimmick, The Ringmaster, which stalled badly and led to the WWE's creative team offering bizarre alternative monikers like Otto Von Ruthless, Ice Dagger and Fang McFrost. Just one year later, Austin was Stone Cold, bald-headed and at the starting line of the career ascent to end all career ascents. Yul Brynner famously described the shaving of his head as a release from "silly vanities", and the same was true for Austin: his was the immaculately smooth cranium of a man who played by his own rules and cared not how others perceived him. The Texas Rattlesnake ran riot against authority figures, his plain ring attire, straight talking and no-nonsense ring style capturing the imagination of unruly teenagers and adult fans who daydreamed of dealing with their bosses the same way Austin dealt with his. Having no hair at all suddenly became the most distinctive haircut in pro wrestling.
