Wrestling's BIG DUMB IDIOTS Who Thought They Were COOL! ?
7. Stone Cold Steve Austin (2003)
It brings nobody any joy to talk about Stone Cold Steve Austin as if he wasn't the coolest character in wrestling history. But it's a walk in the park compared to what it felt like to live through it.
Austin has spoken extensively about his post-retirement years as a period where he couldn't/wouldn't get wrestling "out of his system", but watching him try on television with his Raw GM/Sheriff power trip era was bleak.
From relentlessly battering heels without ever eating any sort of real response, to doing a pale imitation of his most iconic rivalry opposite a game Eric Bischoff, the ATV-riding Austin was his original, industry-altering persona placed through a content production meat grinder.
As a wrestler at the peak of the boom, Austin often did well to mask his insecurities at the top of the card by being undeniable in the spot. As a bit part player simply too big to be marginalised, he looked and felt like he was getting in the way of WWE as a brand ever moving onwards and upwards from their post-Attitude Era decline.