25 biggest pro wrestling ‘what ifs’ of the past 25 years
By Luke Norris
9. What if Steve Austin stays in WCW?
Scott Hall and Kevin Nash leaving WWE for WCW was obviously a very big deal that changed wrestling forever. On the other hand, Stone Cold Steve Austin became a pretty big deal in his own right thanks to that event. But what if he had never actually gone to WWE?
For those not familiar with Austin’s career before ever becoming The Ringmaster or Stone Cold in WWE, the Hall of Famer had a head of blonde hair and was known as “Stunning” Steve Austin. After a short time in the USWA, Austin signed with WCW in 1991 and actually had some success very early on. He won WCW World Television Title just a few weeks after debuting, joined up with Paul Heyman, who was known as Paul E. Dangerously at the time, in the Dangerous Alliance and would go on to have some great battles with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat before teaming up with Brian Pillman (yes, the same guy that would pull a gun on him in WWE…and the same guy that was the first to get a guaranteed contract from Vince McMahon) as The Hollywood Blonds.
Austin and Pillman would win tag team gold and following their split would find singles success, winning the United States Championship. However, Eric Bischoff did not see Austin as overly marketable and part of his future for WCW and fired him when Austin was out with an injury. Heyman, who had moved on to ECW, brought him in, taught him how to cut a good promo and developed him into what we know today. Austin would soon go to WWE and the rest is history.
But what if Bischoff had never fired Steve Austin? Obviously, we don’t get the Stone Cold character and the Attitude Era as we know it never happens. We don’t get Austin vs. McMahon or Austin vs. The Rock or any of the other great programs we got during that time. And what do we get out of him in WCW? Does he ever make it to the top of the card? Probably not. Perhaps we might have gotten that one-on-one matchup between Hogan and Austin though. But it certainly wouldn’t have had the same allure, would it have?