The FIRST TIME Wrestlers Had Their Million Dollar Idea
1. Steve Austin Drinks A Beer
Stone Cold Steve Austin's rise to the top was inexorable and remains an intoxicating process to track, but it was anything but rushed.
Much has been discussed about WWE's false narrative around the King Of The Ring 1996 follow-up, but even throughout 1997, 'The Rattlesnake' constantly had to test and sharpen his instincts out as an entire industry reshaped itself around his brand new antihero personality. A character and a man that asked for forgiveness rather than permission, he perpetually stepped over lines in the fiction, and tried to get as close to them as he possibly could when considering what the persona could do. This was an even more delicate balance strike when he was formally turned babyface following the events of WrestleMania 13. Even though there'd been an obvious shift between himself and longstanding rival Bret Hart, it was as if nothing in the interior life of Austin had changed, and the turn was all the more realistic as a result. Long before the "hell yeah" call-and-response was the norm, Austin didn't didn't pander to the fans, and that in-turn only made them thirst for his approval and acceptance of their love more.
He didn't notably compromise his character's values in any meaningful way, ensuring that the people that arrived via channel-hopping had every reason to stick with him. He was workmanlike when it came to dropping everybody in sight, but he wasn't necessarily completely in lockstep with the 1990s working man...until revealed a six-pack of beers after driving his pickup truck into Raw for an explosive exchange with Rocky Maivia on the December 12th 1997 edition of Monday Night Raw.
Austin's existence was as much about breaking the show as being on it by this point, and if driving a vehicle into the crowd didn't illustrate that enough, the beers absolutely did. This was the athlete being touted as the next top star, who felt quite strong about doing it on the cans. Having realised he could ask for a "hell yeah" when he wanted audience approval without sucking up, he continued to mention drinking cold beers until they too were a necessary part of his legendary act.