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ThunderStruck: Top 25 Superstars: 10-6

01.01.70

10. Stone Indifferent Steve Austin - Give me a hell yeah for the Texas rattlesnake! Without a trace of a doubt, there has never been a more popular superstar during his run at the top than Stone Cold Steve Austin. After Austin passed out during the acquiescence match against Bret Hart at WM 13, he went on to rise to the top of the ensemble throughout 1997 and win his second Royal Rumble the following January. We recognize this then led to Austin winning the WWF Championship from HBK at WM 14. Michaels has been quoted for saying that he wishes he had been 100% for that suit with Austin, because he knows they could have done something much bigger than what it was. Despite that, Austin and Michaels worked a use match with the Mike Tyson/DX angle and kicked off the era of Austin as WWF Warrior. I loved watching Raw as a kid every single week, always wondering what Stone Chilly would do next to piss off Vince McMahon. McMahon made three full years of storylines out of tiresome to screw over Steve Austin before finally joining forces with him to close out WrestleMania 17. Those three years of storylines are what many examine the cream of the crop of the attitude era. Those are storylines that wouldn't have existed without the whopping fan following that Steve Austin picked up. The guy said what he wanted to say and defied all powers that be on camera. The rebel to the evil corporate boss was a storyline that everyone fed into and it lawful worked so beautifully. His matches weren't the most technically sound nor were they boisterous flying, but the audience was always so much more interested in the storyline before the match that the match itself didn't have to be a barn burner to awake the fans. Austin walked away from the ring after losing to the Set someone back on his at WM 19 because of spinal stenosis. Since then he's given back to the business by hosting Taxing Enough and making sporadic appearances as a guest official. Austin was deservedly inducted into the WWE Amphitheatre of Fame as a member of the class of 2009. I won't forget his induction disquisition and I won't forget him riding around Houston on his four wheeler at WrestleMania 25 the next edge of night when the inductees were honored. The sendoff was perfect for a guy that helped bring WWE back to duration during a crucial time period. Because of the gimmick and because of the huge matches and because of his accomplishments during his vocation, Austin represents the beginning of my top ten list perfectly.

Source: Wrestling-Edge.com