WWE Hall Of Famer Knew Steve Austin Would Reach “Top Guy Status”
A legendary wrestler who faced Steve Austin many times in WCW also knew the Rattlesnake would become a top guy in pro wrestling.
When Steve Austin was a rising star in World Championship Wrestling in the early 1990s he had success as a midcard act hovering around the US and TV Titles while also becoming a Tag Team Champion with Brian Pillman as the team known as the Hollywood Blonds.
As most fans know, WCW decided to fire Austin in 1995 and after a brief stop in ECW, WWE signed him to their roster. The Ringmaster gimmick didn’t work, but then “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was born in 1996, then the Austin 3:16 promo took place and a legendary rivalry with Bret Hart as well.
At WrestleMania 14 in 1998, Austin solidified himself as “The Man” in WWE when he became the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time. That also led to WWE overcoming WCW in the “Monday Night Wars” TV ratings battle and the rest is history. Austin would go on to become one of the best and most successful wrestlers even though he retired as a wrestler in 2003 at the age of 38.
Arn Anderson always felt like Steve Austin had what it took to be a main event performer
When Steve Austin was in WCW in the early 1990s, one of the veterans that he got to work with many times in singles and tag team matches was “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson. While Arn wasn’t pushed as a singles main eventer, he was a valuable member of the roster that made everybody around him better.
While speaking on his “Arn Show” podcast talking about WCW in October 1993 when Steve Austin faced Dustin Rhodes in a singles match, The Enforcer was asked if you could tell that Austin and Rhodes would be major stars in the future.
“Yeah, you could tell. Even then both of them were going to move on to top guy status. You just know they just have it in this business.”
“You can look at a guy and watch him wrestle three or 4 or 5 times with different opponents. And if it’s always. Better, different whatever adjectives you want to tack onto it. More creative. Whatever. You can just tell when a guy’s got it and both of them have it.”
Clearly, Double A was right about that especially for Austin and Dustin Rhodes as well since he’ll likely be a WWE Hall of Famer one day due to his success as Goldust.