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#3. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin - Regrets his request to WWE to turn heel
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There will never be a babyface in WWE who can ascend 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin's status. WWE has had all-time great babyfaces that they built the company around such as Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Bret Hart and John Cena. But none of them evoked the same reaction every week that 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin did.
Looking back, Austin's run at the top of WWE lasted only a few years, with injuries shortening that period. But in that time, he arguably had the most impactful babyface run in WWE history.
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'Stone Cold' Steve Austin is among the highest-grossing box office stars in pro wrestling history, but he wasn't prone to mistakes himself. When speaking to Chris Jericho on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Austin said that his heel turn at WrestleMania X7 was his idea, but admits that it was one of the two worst calls he made during his entire WWE run:
“Worst call I’ve ever made other than refusing to job to Brock Lesnar at Atlanta. But, you know, that was my idea. Vince always likes to do something big at Wrestlemania. He didn’t have anything big planned. So, me being the rocket scientist that I am, I figured okay. You’re a hot babyface, and if you turn heel, you’re a hot ass heel to draw money like that. Or vice versa. By and large that is true for the most part if the time is right to turn. Well clearly the time wasn’t right for me to turn." (H/T WrestlingInc)
Although WrestleMania X7 is considered by many to be the greatest pay-per-view in WWE (and professional wrestling) history, the heel turn didn't have the effect that was expected. Austin compared himself to the legendary actor "John Wayne" and admitted that people simply didn't want to hate him:
"People didn’t want to hate me. Me, because I always loved working heel more than a babyface. Thought it was going to be a chance for me to have fun, go back to working heel, doing what I loved to do and with that being said, I love working babyface too. Obviously it’s where I made my money, but I like working heel. So it was a bad idea, but Vince bought into it with me.”
Ultimately, this wasn't something unforgivable and it didn't necessarily leave a bad taste in the mouth of fans - at least not in the long run. Austin is still one of the all-time greats and the hottest babyface that WWE has ever had.
His heel turn at WrestleMania X7 is considered to be the conclusion of the iconic "Attitude Era".
