Ranking Who Was Really The Man In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020
23. 1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin
RAW Is WAR will never occupy the same respected space as Breaking Bad and the Wire, but Steve Austin was as beloved an anti-hero as Walter White and Omar Little, and he predated and perfected the trope with which prestige television overtook cinema in many critical circles.
Steve Austin in 1998 was appointment television: a transcendent TV star so damn good at his wild brawling craft that his people paid to see him at the box office, too. His coronation as the man drove a sensational buy rate, at WrestleMania 14, and his wildly entertaining work in the legendary Austin Vs. McMahon feud convinced an entire generation to return to the clutches of the WWF, much less convince wrestling fans change the channel.
In the modern history of professional wrestling, nobody was more popular at their absolute peak than Steve Austin.