8 Seriously Underrated Stone Cold Steve Austin WWE Matches

Steve Austin is known primarily as a brawler. Although he was brought into the WWF in 1995 because he was a good 'mechanic' (i.e. he could wrestle a solid but unspectacular style and trade holds etc.), his neck issues forced him to change it up in 1998. Gone were the suplexes and hammerlocks and in their place was more kicking, punching, weapon shots and other shortcuts, all delivered at a frenetic pace and, quite often, around the entire arena.

On the June 3rd, 2002 episode of Monday Night Raw, Austin was forced to go back to his roots, so to speak, when Ric Flair challenged him to a 'wrestling match'. That meant no punches for Austin, with a closed fist strike resulting in an automatic loss, something Austin didn't want to happen because if he did lose, his wife Debra would become Flair's personal assistant.

The Nature Boy and the Texas Rattlesnake had a grand old back-and-forth match with some great counter wrestling and some vicious chops being dished out. In what would turn out to be his last ever proper Raw match, Austin got the win thanks to his trusty Stunner. This was a really good fifteen minute TV match and a damn fine main event for the time.

It proved Austin still had some technical knowhow and could adapt to the situation while simultaneously showing that Flair shouldn't have yet been written-off as past-it. He was clearly still more than capable of producing a gripping match and headlining WWE's flagship show.