Vince McMahon Nearly Killed “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s WWE Gimmick
Vince McMahon nearly pulled the plug on “Stone Cold” Steve Austin before he took off as a major star.
There are some WWE superstars who were “chosen ones” early in their careers and lived up to the hype. There are also superstars who become massive attractions because the fans like them or hate them for a particular reason, and they end up being massive stars almost by accident.
WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is an example of a guy who became one of the biggest superstars ever, even though it wasn’t the plan for him.
After the epic WrestleMania 13 match in which Bret Hart defeated Steve Austin in the infamous double turn, Austin was increasingly cheered, and a year later, he was winning his first WWE Title as the most popular wrestler alive.
David Sahadi is a former WWE producer who told Wrestling Observer Radio that Vince McMahon nearly killed Austin’s character when he was getting popular.
“Stone Cold Steve Austin was nearly killed, nearly dead on arrival, because Vince wanted to be heel. And when he started getting popular, it’s right before the Mike Tyson thing. I don’t know the exact date, but Vince held a meeting in corporate and I was there. Kevin Dunn, some corporate executives were too.”
Vince McMahon Wanted Steve Austin To Remain A Heel
As time went on, Steve Austin’s popularity grew, and his greatest rival became Vince McMahon, who is regarded as one of the greatest heels in wrestling history as the evil boss that made life difficult for Austin and others.
Sahadi spoke more about McMahon’s viewpoint at the time.
“Vince is like, ‘You know what? I want fans to boo Stone Cold Steve Austin and they’re not. They’re cheering him. So we need heels. I’m thinking about turning him back into like the Ringmaster character, getting his hair stubbly and wearing the powder blue tights.’”
“Oh my gosh, no. This really happened, Dave. I swear to you. We’re sitting there shocked and Vince is asking for suggestions.”
When former WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn spoke up, Vince began to warm up to the idea of Austin as a babyface.
“Kevin Dunn finally said, ‘Vince, the crowd is liking this. Let’s just let it go where it wants to go.’”
“It was that close to being killed before his great rivalry with Bret Hart where he bled out. If Stone Cold never arrived and existed, what would have happened with WWE? We were two months away from going under.”
According to Sahadi, McMahon was really worried about WCW kicking WWE’s ass.
“Vince held a meeting where he said WCW is kicking our ass. We’ve been losing the ratings for over a year and if we don’t change we’ll be out of business in two months.”
“If Vince kills Stone Cold, you might not be here talking about this today.”
Also Read: Steve Austin refused a match with a legendary WWE Hall of Famer.