Stonecold Steve Austin is the definition of a babyface. As a beer drinking blue collar guy he pretty much felt like one of us, the WWF audience. Despite this, at Wrestlemania 17 in 2001, the unthinkable happened. In order to take the WWF title from The Rock, Austin sold out his entire character to join nemesis Vince McMahon. At the conclusion of a brilliant main event, Austin took a McMahon chair and started whaling on The Rock ... however, what should have been boos was a chorus of cheers. The simple problem is you can't turn a guy like Austin heel. He is too edgy and over as a face for it to ever catch on. To compound the stupidity, the WWE chose Austin's home state of Texas to try and get the angle over. I mean seriously WWE, what did you expect? The proud Texans cheered their home boy on as if the chair involvement was the biggest babyface move ever. The failure of this angle ultimately ended up killing the Attitude Era. The WWE's success had been based off of Austin vs McMahon with the added dynamic of Rock. This one angle killed all three aspects. Austin has since admitted he should have called an audible there and then "I should've stunnered Vince and carried on as I was."
