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#7 Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin will go down, without a shadow of a doubt, as one of the most wildly popular superstars in wrestling history.
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He basically won the Monday Night War for WWE, as he was the only thing that seemed to be able to win ratings when put against the NWO. His influence can be felt all throughout the WWE, and all of sports entertainment.
A former WWE writer just went after JBL for his comments HERE
However, his character was much more aligned with what one would find in a heel wrestler. Stone Cold Steve Austin blatantly cheated -- Jim Ross would refer to it as 'bending the rules' -- to win when it suited him. He even sneaked back into the Royal Rumble after being eliminated!
Not only did Austin cheat, even at the heights of his babyface popularity, but he also exhibited a lot of other bad guy traits. He didn't tell fans to take their vitamins and say their prayers; rather, he encouraged them to give the approval to beat downs and violent acts. Not only that, he cursed constantly, and had a penchant for downing huge quantities of alcohol on live television... not exactly role model material. Yet he was insanely popular. Why?
Why he was cheered instead of booed: Stone Cold Steve Austin was another product of the 1990s that also gave Hall and Nash a babyface reaction. His antihero, anti-establishment character was the perfect foil for the corporate evil personified by Vince McMahon. He was a great orator and a criminally underrated technical wrestler, and the fans appreciated these traits.
