8 Wrestlers Who Broke All The Rules
Those names who went against the very fundamentals of what's supposed to makes the business tick.
These days, professional wrestling is an industry that is forever changing and constantly looking at ways to appeal to different tastes. Whatever you like to see from your pro wrestling, chances are there's a promotion out there perfectly tailored to what you're looking for.
Over the decades, however, there have been certain rules in place in the wrestling business. Not the rules of a wrestling match exactly, but more the traditions and fundamentals that are supposed to make the industry tick.
To this day, there are still certain elements of pro wrestling in place here in 2020 that were in place back when, for example, Lou Thesz and Whipper Billy Watson did battle in the 1950s. While the business has long been built on these established traditions, though, there have been performers over the years who have managed to go against type, to go against the norm, to go against what has been so proven to work - and manage to be hugely successful as a result!
It takes a special sort of talent to flaunt the status quo and come out smelling of roses, but here are eight (well, technically nine) wrestlers who have done just that.
8. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin - The Non-Babyface Babyface
A babyface flipping people off? While cursing profusely? Drinking beer on TV? And kicking the sh*t out of authority figures?
That is the formula that propelled Steve Austin from the Ringmaster to Stone Cold, but it was something that, according to wrestling lore, was simply not supposed to be possible.
The babyfaces were the good guys and gals who kissed babies, hugged grannies, took their vitamins, said their prayers, and forever had the cheesiest of cheesy grins etched across their face. At the time that Austin's rise to prominence began to gather traction, he broke any and every rule that was historically tied to a babyface.
Laying your hands on an authority figure on its own was enough to mean that someone was a fully-fledged villain - just imagine Hulk Hogan laying out Jack Tunney - let alone going to the extent of swearing like a sailor on international TV as you proudly paraded your middle fingers around.
From purely a characteristics stance, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin was every bit the traditional heel. Only he wasn't, for the business was evolving away from perma-tanned, skullet-adorned heroes, with the aggressive anti-hero kicking the door down and changing what really made a babyface.
Austin's act was the hottest of the hottest time in the wrestling business, yet it was an act that went against every rule in the book.