5 Great Steve Austin Moments In WCW (& 5 From ECW)
Before he was Stone Cold or even The Ringmaster, he was “Stunning” Steve Austin in World Championship Wrestling, where he was best remembered for his tag team with “Flyin’” Brian Pillman, The Hollywood Blondes. After an unceremonious firing from WCW, Austin would land in Extreme Championship Wrestling as “Superstar” Steve Austin, where he’d start developing the persona that would evolve into Stone Cold.
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Steve Austin’s Attitude Era hijinx would result in the World Wrestling Federation hitting creative and financial peaks, overshadowing great moments from his previous gigs. So let’s take a look at some of the future Stone Cold’s best moments from both WCW and ECW.
10 WCW: Feuding with Ricky Steamboat
Even back in the WCW days, Steve Austin was a great heel, and when put against a pure babyface like Ricky Steamboat, he was an even more effective heel. Austin would clash with Steamboat several times throughout his WCW run over both the World Television and United States Heavyweight titles, but the last time would be one of the best.
It was Clash of the Champions XXVIII where Steamboat would beat Austin for the US Title in a great No DQ match.
9 ECW: The 4 A.M. Promo
More than his matches, fans best remember Steve Austin’s time with ECW for his blistering promos where he trashed his old employers at WCW. This classic promo -- shot incredibly late into a taping, at 4 A.M. -- includes some spot-on impressions of Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair as he gripes about his lack of opportunities over at “where the big boys play.”
But even more notably, he also sets his sights on what a low-rent affair ECW is, perfectly establishing Austin as an incoming heel ready to big-time every ECW star in sight.
8 WCW: Tag Team Champions
By this point, “Stunning” Steve Austin was already a two-time WCW World Television Champion, but Austin found further success when he teamed up with future WWF rival “Flyin’” Brian Pillman as The Hollywood Blondes, one of the great tag teams of early 1990s WCW.
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One of the duo’s best matches was their title shot at Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas on an episode of WCW Worldwide, a 20-minute affair that would end with the Blondes becoming the NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Champions.
7 ECW: Attacking Sandman
The advertised match of 1995’s November to Remember event was supposed to be The Sandman challenging Mikey Whipwreck for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, but before the match could begin, Steve Austin got the drop on Sandman.
He would not only attack Sandman with a kendo stick and Stun Gun him into the guard rail but also chug a beer on his way to the ring, in what would become an extremely Steve Austin thing to do.
6 WCW: Feuding with the Horsemen
During the team’s year-long existence, The Hollywood Blondes got into a fun feud with the Four Horsemen as the young hotshots looked down on the veteran Horsemen for being old and irrelevant.
The pair even went as far as making fun of Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to their faces on a Flair for the Gold segment. This would culminate with The Blondes defending their titles against Arn Anderson and Paul Roma in a great match at Beach Blast in 1993.
5 ECW: Losing to Mikey Whipwreck
“Superstar” Steve Austin only had two matches during his brief stint at ECW, the first of which being the aforementioned singles title shot against Mikey Whipwreck. Whipwreck would really take it to Austin, kick out of a pin following a Stun Gun, and defeat Austin by pulling his pants down during a Sunset Flip pinning attempt.
This would keep Austin on the hunt for the title, but the most interesting thing to come out of their feud was Austin adopting Whipwreck’s finisher, the Whipper-Snapper, as the Stone Cold Stunner.
4 WCW: The Hollywood Blondes Break Up
It was on an October 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night when The Hollywood Blondes put away a pair of jobbers in less-than-five-minutes. It’s the aftermath of this squash however, that matters, as Austin would turn on Pillman, siding with Colonel Robert Parker in the process.
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The Hollywood Blondes break-up would lead to a match between the former partners at Clash of the Champions XXV, with Austin winning thanks to some interference from his new manager.
3 ECW: The Three-Way Dance
About a month after his singles loss to Mikey Whipwreck, Steve Austin would have another title shot in his second and final match for ECW at December to Dismember.
Taking on Whipwreck and The Sandman in a three-way elimination match, Austin would eliminate Whipwreck in the bout only to be beaten by Sandman in the end. Fans may have expected Steve Austin to win the title early in his run, but Austin himself saw more value in the thrill of the chase for his character.
2 WCW: United States Champion
Steve Austin was already a two-time TV Champion when he took on Dustin Rhodes for the WCW United States Title at Halloween Havoc 1993.
It was a 2/3 Falls Match, and Austin would win two straight falls for his biggest title win yet. Even more notable is that it would be one the longest title reigns in Austin’s entire career, going 240 days until he lost the title to Ricky Steamboat.
1 ECW: “Take Me Back”
After losing both his title shots in ECW, Steve Austin cut this great promo about how he’d fallen off, blaming his losses to both Mikey Whipwreck and The Sandman not on their own wrestling ability, but rather on his injury and lack of focus.
There’s a great bit in here where he sarcastically begs Eric Bishoff to take him back, too, but this promo will be especially notable to Steve Austin fans for his use of “That’s the bottom line,” which would become one of Stone Cold’s catchphrases.
NEXT: Steve Austin's 5 Best Championship Reigns (& His 5 Worst)
