8 Wrestlers Who Admitted To Cracking Under Pressure

3. Steve Austin

Although Steve Austin walking out on WWE was the product of many things, the tipping point was the promotion asking him to wrestle Brock Lesnar on an episode of Raw. 'Stone Cold' showed up at the building, got angry that WWE wanted to throw a potential money-making match away on free TV, and took the next flight home, leaving the promotion in chaos.

This came just two weeks after an appearance on WWE's old web series, Byte This, saw him criticise the company's "piss poor" creative. "I've always been willing to do business when it is time to do business, but that wasn't business," is what Austin told Sam Roberts in 2017, and it's hard to argue with him.

Austin cracked. By his own admission, he blew his top. "I was so hot and I made a knee-jerk reaction," he said, adding that he should have gone to Vince McMahon cordially, not "taken his ball and gone home." It was a messy situation that instigated a standoff between two of WWE's most hardheaded personalities - Austin and Vince McMahon - that didn't end until 'Stone Cold' had negotiated an initial $650,000 fine down to $250,000.