5 WWE Superstars you did not expect would ever tap out

4: Stone Cold Steve Austin

The inception of the Attitude Era was a watershed moment in the history of the WWE. One of the defining characteristics of this Era was the smudging of boundaries between traditional good and bad. In WWE parlance, such a gimmick was called a tweener, one who treads the area between face and heel while never settling on any one. Being a tweener also made it improbable for the character to lose a match by tapping out. Submission losses carried meaning for the ring storylines of both faces and heels but not a character as morally ambiguous as a tweener.

Stone Cold’s anti-establishment gimmick against the malicious “boss” Mr. Mcmahon had propelled him to television fanfare, contributing in a major way to WWE conquering WCW during the Monday Night Wars. As an extremely popular Superstar, besides being a tweener, his persona during this time was not suited for a tap out loss. Previously, he had turned face after passing out to Bret Hart’s sharpshooter at Wrestlemania 13. However, towards the middle of 2001, Austin underwent a substantial character upheaval. He turned heel by aligning himself alongside Mr.Mcmahon against The Rock at Wrestlemania X-7, despite starting as a face.

This would culminate in the formation of The Two-Man Power Trip, a villainous stable comprising The Rattlesnake and Triple H, who darted onto a collision course with other tag teams. Austin’s first defeat via tap out would come during this run, at the hands of Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. With Triple H out of the picture due to a tear in his left quadriceps, Austin teamed up with the Dudley Boyz to take on Jericho, Benoit and Spike Dudley on the June 18, 2001, episode of Raw Is War. The loss came as a result of a double submission when Benoit locked his arms in a Crossface around Austin’s bare neck while the latter lay incapacitated in a Walls of Jericho hold.

Austin’s second loss through submission came as a result of an intense rivalry with Kurt Angle. Having roused the Olympic hero’s ire through self-disqualification in a title match, Austin had furthered their feud by throwing away Angle’s Olympic medals into the chilly depths of the Detroit River. The one-upmanship reached stellar heights when Angle challenged Austin for the WWF Championship once again, to be settled in a match at Unforgiven 2001 in Kurt’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Walking into a heated Pittsburgh arena, the champion heel was accosted by Angle before he had even stepped into the ring. Using Austin’s own stunner against him, Angle thwarted Stone Cold’s attempts at another by converting it into an Ankle Lock, to which Austin tapped out. The crowd went berserk with jubilation and triumph, hoisting Angle into the air as the new WWF Champion. This booking fell into perfect place given the location of the match and the move employed by the local hero to seal the win. As for Austin, this was the last time in his career when he would have to pound on the canvas to end a match.