The 10 best Superstars from the Attitude Era

#1 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin

Simply the best.

It may be a bit of an unoriginal thing to say, but Stone Cold Steve Austin was the greatest and most important Superstar of WWF's Attitude Era. After all, there's a reason why certain statements take on such an unoriginal and expected nature, some things in life are true and will forever remain that way.

In a period of time when WWF's top-tier talents like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were making their way over to WCW, Vince McMahon knew that his best line of attack going forward would be to embrace a new cohort of stars. Luckily, with Bishoff and co. so fixated on the New World Order, certain Superstars that had previously failed to make a name for themselves in the company were searching for opportunities in the WWF.

Steve Austin was one of those individuals. His early career was, like the Rock's, an example of how McMahon was still pretty out of touch with what was happening amongst his fanbase. Austin's 'Ringmaster' gimmick from 96 was failing to make many waves, but with a few simple tweaks, the Stone Cold character was soon born and the wrestling business was changed forever.

The first indications of how important Austin would prove to be came during his feud with Brian Pillman. In scenes that WWF fans had never seen the like of before, Pillman was forced to defend himself with a gun as a way of keeping the insane, self-destructive Austin at bay.

Things would only move from strength to strength following this when Stone Cold's course came into direct contact with Vince McMahon. The boss's attempts to keep Austin from holding the WWF Championship led to some of the greatest scenes ever to be showcased on RAW and Smackdown. Anyone who came close to this rivalry was also made the better for it, and with it, the WWF was truly off to the races.

It's difficult to list all of the shocking moments involving Austin during this period, but two, in particular, instantly come to mind. The first is when Vince was left urinating on himself after Stone Cold threatened to shoot him in front of the audience. The second was the infamous beer truck incident when the Corporation learned the hard way what it meant to aggravate the Rattlesnake too much.

Just as anyone who enjoyed Wrestling in the 80s owed their appreciation primarily to Hulk Hogan, those who sat through this highly entertaining period and beyond need to recognise the contribution of the one and only Stone Cold Steve Austin because, as we all know, there will simply never be another like him.

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