10 major WWE superstars and their tipping points

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Austin 3:16 promo initiated WWE’s greatest era

”You sit there and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn’t get you anywhere. Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16...Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!” – words that flowed from a triumphant mouth, on the back of his 1996 King of the Ring victory over Jake the Snake Roberts who was then portraying a religious heel character.

Little did anyone know then that “Austin 3:16” would assume near-religious significance in WWE history, except perhaps the man himself. What followed this famous statement was fair warning to everyone in the locker-room that they were on Stone Cold’s hit-list and that he would take everyone out in his quest for championship gold.

We now know that those were anything but empty words, what with Austin’s revolutionary stint as the top draw of the company during its most popular era.

In actuality, the King of the Ring in 1996 was initially supposed to have been won by Triple H, but Austin ended up winning it and sealing his “push” to the top. Why Triple H did not emerge victorious is a debatable topic that has been a constant source of controversy over the years. However surely by now, no one is complaining, least of all the Chief Operating Officer of the WWE, Triple H.

Hulk Hogan

Unforgettable images of Hogan bodyslamming Andre The Giant

Hulk Hogan is known as “The Immortal One” for a reason that was well reinforced during his Wrestlemania 18 showdown with The Rock.

Although the Hulkster was a heel, the audience reaction that he engendered eventually resulted in The Rock turning heel simply to accommodate the inordinate amount of support that Hogan was receiving. Richly deserved that too, owing to how inter-related the fortunes of Hulk Hogan and the WWE were in the late 80s.

What transpired at Wrestlemania 3, in front of 93000 people, is an event that is etched in the mind of every wrestling fan. Until then, even the thought of someone picking up Andre the Giant was written off as outlandish.

Hulk Hogan, on the other hand, picked up Andre over his head and body-slammed him. It was truly a slam that was heard throughout the world in that it helped establish Hulk Hogan as a global star and WWE as a global phenomenon.

Words cannot do justice in attempting to elucidate precisely how important Hulk Hogan’s body slam of Andre the Giant was to all the parties involved, and in some senses, it served as much as a tipping point for WWE as it did for Hulk Hogan.