50 Greatest WWE Raw Moments Ever
11. Austin Stuns McMahon (September 22nd, 1997)
Stone Cold Steve Austin appeared to be making the best of a bad situation when, after being almost paralysed by Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997, he was programmed against the suits and commentators of WWE rather than other wrestlers. 'The Rattlesnake's unflinching desire to see his push all the way through to history-making levels ensured that it'd be his actual ticket to the top.
By late September, he was reaching breaking point with everybody, and found himself in trouble with the law when he broke a restraining order Hart had placed on him following yet another run-in. Austin had dropped Jim Ross, Sgt Slaughter and Jerry Lawler on their necks in their differing capacities as pen-pushers, leaving Vince McMahon as the only one left to try and talk some sense into the increasingly unhinged star.
With WWE now acknowledging McMahon as the boss without particularly using him to wield power, this was the line even a white hot Austin couldn't cross. Or could he? With one hideously ugly Stone Cold Stunner, the ante was upped and the true seeds of the biggest rivalry of the Attitude Era was sown. Austin was already a Hulk Hogan-level babyface in waiting, but with one unexpected assault, the man that programmed countless heels against the red-and-yellow hero in the 1980s was suddenly positioned as the force to embody all of those villainous traits himself.