Vince McMahon Considered Steve Austin As Middle Of The Card At First

WWE Hall Of Famer ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin is regarded as one of the best pro wrestlers to have ever competed inside the squared circle. However, he wasn’t always as successful as Austin made his WWE debut as the Ringmaster. Vince McMahon also didn’t think much of him for a long time.

Steve Austin ushered in the Attitude Era and became the face of the company. His feuds with the likes of The Rock, Triple H and more helped define a generation

While speaking on the DDP Snake Pit podcast, Jake Roberts talked about losing to Steve Austin at the 1996 King Of The Ring. Roberts revealed that Vince McMahon saw Steve Austin as someone in the midcard before his meteoric rise.

He came up there as The Ringmaster, which stunk. And he knew it stunk, I knew it stunk, but Vince has this thing, man. He’s going to make it work. But it wasn’t working and it wasn’t doing anybody any favors, and it finally got bad enough that they gave him some time off and he came back Stone Cold.

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At that time, I was helping write the storylines and I looked at the whole thing there and I told Vince ‘that guy’s going to be your next megastar.’ And Vince laughed at me, he said ‘no way. Middle of the card. Maybe.’ I said ‘no, you’re wrong. You wait and see.’ And that’s probably one of my better feel-good moments too because I was right.”

After being directionless with the Ringmaster gimmick, Austin pitched his iconic gimmick and went on to become the biggest star of the Attitude Era in WWE. The rest, as they say, is history.

h/t Wrestling Inc

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