WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.439 So imagine walking into your billionaire boss's 00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:06.299 office and just flipping him the bird. Oh, man. 00:00:06.459 --> 00:00:08.779 Right. And instead of getting immediately escorted 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:11.439 out by security, you somehow become the most 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:14.279 celebrated, highest paid employee in the entire 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:17.039 history of the company. It is pretty much the 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:19.679 ultimate American workplace fantasy. It really 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.539 is. And welcome to today's deep dive, because 00:00:22.539 --> 00:00:25.739 we are looking at the man who took that exact 00:00:25.739 --> 00:00:29.579 wild premise and forged it into a multimillion 00:00:29.579 --> 00:00:32.399 dollar reality. Yeah, we've got a massive dossier 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:34.420 to get through today. We do. We are unpacking 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:38.000 the career, the psychology and just the massive 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.460 cultural footprint of Stone Cold Steve Austin. 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:44.109 We're gonna look at how a college football dropout 00:00:44.109 --> 00:00:47.030 fundamentally shifted late 90s pop culture, right? 00:00:47.729 --> 00:00:50.250 And became the undeniable poster boy of the attitude 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:52.829 era. And, you know, it is crucial to establish 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:54.850 right away that looking at these sources, this 00:00:54.850 --> 00:00:57.549 goes far, far beyond just the standard biography 00:00:57.549 --> 00:01:00.380 of a professional wrestler. I mean, this is a 00:01:00.380 --> 00:01:02.780 master class in branding. It's this fascinating 00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:05.640 case study in finding your authentic voice under 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:08.319 immense corporate pressure. And it really deeply 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:11.099 explores the blurred lines between fiction and 00:01:11.099 --> 00:01:13.519 reality in entertainment. OK, let's unpack this 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:16.939 because before he was driving beer trucks and 00:01:16.939 --> 00:01:20.180 Zambonis into arenas to torment his boss, he 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:23.219 was actually fired for being, quote, unmarketable, 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.060 which just sounds insane now. Right. But. To 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:27.879 understand the beer truck, we kind of have to 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:30.620 start with the sting of that rejection. So he 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:33.340 was born Stephen James Anderson in Texas, grows 00:01:33.340 --> 00:01:35.700 up playing football, eventually playing linebacker 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:37.379 and defensive end at the University of North 00:01:37.379 --> 00:01:40.000 Texas. But he drops out just a few credit chiva 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.260 degree. So close. Yeah. He starts training to 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:46.680 wrestle in the late 80s. And by 1991, he actually 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:50.359 signs with WCW. which introduces an immediate 00:01:50.359 --> 00:01:53.480 identity crisis for him, because WCW saddles 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:55.959 him with this very top -down, focus -grouped 00:01:55.959 --> 00:01:58.359 persona. They call him Stunning Steve Austin. 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:02.260 Stunning Steve. Yeah. He's booked as this arrogant, 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:06.060 villainous in -ring technician. He's got a valet 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:08.439 named Lady Blossom. He forms a tag team called 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:10.280 the Hollywood Blondes with Brian Pillman. Which 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:12.060 was moderately successful, right? Moderately, 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:14.710 yeah. But Austin himself admitted later that 00:02:14.710 --> 00:02:16.710 the stunning gimmick, it felt like putting on 00:02:16.710 --> 00:02:18.449 someone else's suit. He just couldn't commit 00:02:18.449 --> 00:02:20.569 to it because it simply wasn't him. He's just 00:02:20.569 --> 00:02:22.590 playing a part. Exactly. He's going through the 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:25.310 motions, basically suffering from a very physical 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:27.889 form of imposter syndrome. And then the bottom 00:02:27.889 --> 00:02:31.090 completely falls out. It's 1995. He's on a tour 00:02:31.090 --> 00:02:35.189 in Japan. And he suffers a severe torn triceps. 00:02:35.490 --> 00:02:37.810 Ouch. Yeah. So he's sidelined. He's sitting at 00:02:37.810 --> 00:02:42.370 home rehabbing. And while he is injured, WCW 00:02:42.370 --> 00:02:45.750 President Eric Bischoff fires him. Over the phone. 00:02:45.889 --> 00:02:48.430 Over the phone. While he's hurt. And Bischoff's 00:02:48.430 --> 00:02:50.430 reasoning, which is heavily detailed in the sources, 00:02:50.830 --> 00:02:52.969 was that Austin wasn't a proven main event name. 00:02:53.469 --> 00:02:55.949 He was reportedly hard to work with. And fundamentally, 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:58.189 Bischoff just didn't see him as a marketable 00:02:58.189 --> 00:03:00.430 asset. Okay, I have to push back on Bischoff's 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:03.610 judgment here. Because reading that firing, it 00:03:03.610 --> 00:03:06.469 felt exactly like that legendary story of the 00:03:06.469 --> 00:03:08.969 Deca Records executive who passed on the Beatles. 00:03:09.229 --> 00:03:11.650 Right, because guitar groups were quote -unquote 00:03:11.650 --> 00:03:14.490 on their way out. Exactly. It sounds historically 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:17.250 foolish. I mean, was there any truth at all to 00:03:17.250 --> 00:03:19.389 Bischoff's assessment at that specific moment 00:03:19.389 --> 00:03:21.759 in time? Well, what's fascinating here is that 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:24.219 from a purely analytical standpoint, Bischoff 00:03:24.219 --> 00:03:27.259 wasn't entirely wrong. Wait, really? Yeah. I 00:03:27.259 --> 00:03:29.319 mean, you are comparing it to the music industry, 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.460 but wrestling is heavily reliant on visual and 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:35.180 psychological connection. Bischoff was evaluating 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:38.900 the character of Stunning Steve, a guy in shiny 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:41.979 boots with a forced, arrogant gimmick. That character 00:03:41.979 --> 00:03:45.000 was never going to sell out 80 ,000 seat stadiums. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.419 It was restrictive. So it was the gimmick that 00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:50.039 was unmarketable, not the man. Right. It wasn't 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:52.340 until Austin was forcefully stripped of that 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:55.699 artificial persona that his actual highly marketable 00:03:55.699 --> 00:03:59.460 personality had the space to emerge. Wow. So 00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:01.879 that devastating phone call wasn't just a rejection. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:05.039 It was like an eviction from a creative prison. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.139 That's a great way to put it. So he is sitting 00:04:07.139 --> 00:04:09.379 at home, stripped of his corporate identity, 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:12.659 nursing a shredded arm and a deeply bruised ego. 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:16.439 He has absolutely nothing left to lose. And in 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:19.300 this industry, having nothing to lose makes a 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:22.819 performer incredibly dangerous. Highly motivated. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:25.839 Exactly. And that is when Paul Heyman makes a 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:29.500 phone call and brings Austin into ECW in 1995 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:32.980 for 500 bucks a night. And because Austin is 00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:35.100 still rehabbing that torn triceps, you know, 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:37.399 he can't actually wrestle. So Heyman does the 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:39.860 single most important thing anyone could have 00:04:39.860 --> 00:04:41.959 done for Steve Austin's career at that exact 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:43.800 moment. He just hands him a microphone. Just 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.600 let him talk. Yeah. ECW was this underground, 00:04:46.899 --> 00:04:50.199 gritty, highly visceral platform. Austin couldn't 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:52.480 rely on athletic feats, so he had to use his 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:55.019 words as weapons. And he used that mic to vent 00:04:55.019 --> 00:04:58.220 his very real, entirely unscripted frustrations 00:04:58.220 --> 00:05:00.639 about WCW and Eric Bischoff. He isn't playing 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:04.420 a character. No. He's a genuinely angry, unemployed 00:05:04.420 --> 00:05:07.120 Texan who had just lost his livelihood. And he 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:09.980 realized right then and there that the most magnetic 00:05:09.980 --> 00:05:12.319 performances in entertainment, they don't come 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:15.550 from memorizing a script. They come from channeling 00:05:15.550 --> 00:05:18.769 genuine raw emotion. He finally found his voice. 00:05:18.870 --> 00:05:22.290 He did. But the environment of ECW, while culturally 00:05:22.290 --> 00:05:24.750 significant, it just wasn't the global stage 00:05:24.750 --> 00:05:26.970 he needed. Right. He needs a massive platform. 00:05:27.430 --> 00:05:30.769 So late in 1995, he finally joins the big leagues, 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:34.970 the WWF. And unbelievably, they saddle him with 00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:37.850 yet another terrible focus group gimmick. Oh, 00:05:37.850 --> 00:05:40.170 it's so bad. They call him the ringmaster. Yeah. 00:05:40.189 --> 00:05:42.029 It's just another technician character devoid 00:05:42.029 --> 00:05:45.180 of any real soul. The WWF at the time was still 00:05:45.180 --> 00:05:48.660 heavily reliant on cartoonish, occupational gimmicks. 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:50.819 You know, like trash men and plumbers. Right, 00:05:50.819 --> 00:05:52.639 right. So they handed him a prop and told him 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:55.220 to go be a silent wrestling machine. And he realizes 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:58.800 almost immediately that the Ringmaster is a catastrophic 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.759 flop. So he just takes matters into his own hands. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:05.240 And the sources detail this highly specific aesthetic 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:08.079 shift that is just brilliant. Oh, the hair. Yes. 00:06:08.269 --> 00:06:10.850 So he's dealing with thinning hair anyway, and 00:06:10.850 --> 00:06:13.490 he's watching the Pulp Fiction. He sees Bruce 00:06:13.490 --> 00:06:18.029 Willis' character, Butch, a guy who is raw, desperate, 00:06:18.250 --> 00:06:21.149 and entirely uncompromising. Right. So Austin 00:06:21.149 --> 00:06:23.670 literally goes into the bathroom, takes a razor 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:27.839 blade, and shaves his head. completely bald and 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:29.920 he grows out of goatee. It completely strips 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:33.199 away all that neon polish of the 1980s wrestling 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.199 aesthetic. He stops looking like an action figure 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:36.879 and starts looking like a guy you desperately 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:39.339 want to avoid making eye contact with in a dive 00:06:39.339 --> 00:06:42.370 bar. Exactly, but he still needs a name. to match 00:06:42.370 --> 00:06:44.430 that terrifying look. And this is hands down 00:06:44.430 --> 00:06:47.029 my favorite detail in the entire dossier. It's 00:06:47.029 --> 00:06:49.089 so good. He's pitching ideas, trying to get away 00:06:49.089 --> 00:06:51.529 from the ringmaster. Management actually pitches 00:06:51.529 --> 00:06:54.689 him names like Fang McFrost and Ice Dave. It's 00:06:54.689 --> 00:06:57.589 just absolute garbage names. It's terrible. But 00:06:57.589 --> 00:06:59.350 the spark comes from his English wife at the 00:06:59.350 --> 00:07:01.689 time, Jeannie. She hands him a cup of hot tea 00:07:01.689 --> 00:07:03.870 and tells him to drink it before it gets, quote, 00:07:04.230 --> 00:07:06.920 stone cold. The serendipity of that is incredible. 00:07:07.220 --> 00:07:09.480 Stone Cold Steve Austin, it perfectly encapsulates 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.120 the bald head, the goatee, the ruthless dead 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:15.459 eyed attitude. It all just clicked. Yeah. He 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:19.060 now has the authentic voice from his ECW days. 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:22.720 He has the gritty look and he has the name. The 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:25.199 kindling is all gathered in one place. He just 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:27.779 needs a spark to ignite it in front of the massive 00:07:27.779 --> 00:07:30.779 WWF audience. Yeah. And that spark arrives in 00:07:30.779 --> 00:07:33.779 1996 at the King of the Ring tournament. And 00:07:33.779 --> 00:07:36.360 again, this is a complete accident of history. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:38.519 Totally unplanned. Austin wasn't even supposed 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:41.139 to win this tournament. The plan was for Triple 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:44.079 H to win, but Triple H was being punished by 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:46.000 management for breaking character in the ring 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.220 during a previous event. Right. The infamous 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.959 curtain call incident. Yes. Yeah. So management 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:53.339 calls an audible and gives the tournament win 00:07:53.339 --> 00:07:55.920 to Austin instead. It is the ultimate collision 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:58.339 of opportunity and preparation. So Austin wins 00:07:58.339 --> 00:08:00.660 the final match against Jake the Snake Roberts. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.079 To understand the mechanism of what happens next, 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:06.000 you have to know that Roberts was portraying 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.879 a born -again Christian character at the time. 00:08:08.180 --> 00:08:10.420 Right. So Austin grabs the microphone for his 00:08:10.420 --> 00:08:13.259 coronation speech, and he just ad libs. He just 00:08:13.259 --> 00:08:16.420 goes for it. He mocks Roberts' faith, looking 00:08:16.420 --> 00:08:19.079 directly into the camera, and delivers the line 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:21.180 that changes the trajectory of the entire industry. 00:08:21.699 --> 00:08:23.740 He says, you sit there and you thunk your Bible, 00:08:24.100 --> 00:08:25.959 and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you 00:08:25.959 --> 00:08:28.480 anywhere. Talk about your Psalms. Talk about 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:32.379 John 3 .16. Austin 3 .16 says, I just whipped 00:08:32.379 --> 00:08:34.879 your ass. Iconic. And he follows it up with, 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:37.360 and that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:40.080 said so. And if we connect this to the bigger 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:43.220 picture, we really have to look at why that specific 00:08:43.220 --> 00:08:46.120 combination of words resonated so violently with 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:47.740 the audience. Because it really did explode. 00:08:47.909 --> 00:08:51.309 It did. The mid -90s were undergoing this massive 00:08:51.309 --> 00:08:54.389 cultural shift. The brightly colored, morally 00:08:54.389 --> 00:08:56.950 pure, eat your vitamins superheroes of the 80s, 00:08:56.990 --> 00:08:59.570 they felt incredibly outdated. Yeah. Nobody bought 00:08:59.570 --> 00:09:01.730 it anymore. Exactly. Audiences were cynical. 00:09:02.169 --> 00:09:04.649 Grunge music had taken over. Tarantino was dominating 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:07.210 the box office. The public was leaning heavily 00:09:07.210 --> 00:09:09.610 toward anti -heroes. You know, people who were 00:09:09.610 --> 00:09:12.250 raw, profane, and actively hostile toward the 00:09:12.250 --> 00:09:14.149 rules. And Austin was the embodiment of that. 00:09:14.350 --> 00:09:17.350 Austin 3 .16 tapped directly into that system. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:21.279 and from a pure business standpoint, it spawned 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:23.000 what would become one of the best -selling t 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.879 -shirts in global merchandise history. So he 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:28.440 establishes himself as this dangerous anti -hero, 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:31.799 but to truly cement that psychology with the 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:34.580 crowd, he had to face the ultimate traditional 00:09:34.580 --> 00:09:37.120 hero, right, Bret Hart? Right, WrestleMania XIII. 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:39.639 A submission match. And this isn't just a physical 00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:42.519 contest, it's an absolute masterpiece of psychological 00:09:42.519 --> 00:09:45.799 storytelling. Austin is Locke. in Hart's finishing 00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:47.940 hold, the sharpshooter. Blood is just pouring 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:50.460 down Austin's face, staining his teeth. That 00:09:50.460 --> 00:09:52.779 visual is burned into the minds of fans. But 00:09:52.779 --> 00:09:56.480 he refuses to quit. He refuses to tap out. He 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:58.860 literally passes out in a pool of his own blood, 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.820 rather than surrender. And this specific moment 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:04.440 executes what is known in the industry as a double 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:07.299 turn, and it is incredibly rare to pull off successfully. 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:09.279 How does that work, exactly? Well, you'd have 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:11.419 to understand how audience psychology works here. 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:15.539 By refusing to quit, even in total defeat, Austin 00:10:15.539 --> 00:10:17.980 validated the everyday struggles of the audience. 00:10:18.519 --> 00:10:21.240 They respected his sheer grit over his moral 00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:24.299 purity, so he became the beloved anti -hero. 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:27.740 Okay, and Bret Hart. Meanwhile, Bret Hart... 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:30.620 the squeaky clean hero, continued to attack the 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:32.820 unconscious Austin after the bell, which made 00:10:32.820 --> 00:10:35.159 him look petty and cruel. So the crowd turned 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:37.879 on the hero and embraced the villain. The entire 00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:40.000 moral axis of the company completely flipped 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.539 in a single night. That is wild. So he reaches 00:10:42.539 --> 00:10:45.100 the absolute pinnacle of his popularity. He's 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:47.240 the hottest commodity in entertainment. And then 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:50.139 a catastrophic accident nearly ends it all. Yeah. 00:10:50.279 --> 00:10:53.879 Summer Slam 1997. He's wrestling Owen Hart. And 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:56.179 Owen botches a pile driver maneuver, essentially 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:58.639 dropping Austin's entire body weight squarely 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:00.879 under the crown of his head. The result was a 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:02.980 legitimately bruised spinal cord and temporary 00:11:02.980 --> 00:11:05.399 terrifying paralysis. I mean, Austin is lying 00:11:05.399 --> 00:11:07.519 in the ring completely unable to move his arms 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:10.899 or his legs. He literally has to muster every 00:11:10.899 --> 00:11:14.460 ounce of physical willpower just to roll Owen 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.139 Hart up for this sloppy pinfall to finish the 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:19.720 match. And then he has to be heavily assisted 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:22.679 to the back. It is incredibly tough to watch. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:24.980 It's a miracle he wasn't permanently paralyzed. 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:28.169 Seriously. Which brings me to a question from 00:11:28.169 --> 00:11:30.950 a performance standpoint. How do you sustain 00:11:30.950 --> 00:11:33.929 your momentum when you are suddenly? physically 00:11:33.929 --> 00:11:36.470 unable to perform the athletic feats that got 00:11:36.470 --> 00:11:38.710 you to the top in the first place. Well, it forces 00:11:38.710 --> 00:11:42.009 another massive evolution. Because of the sheer 00:11:42.009 --> 00:11:45.029 physical reality of his neck injury, Austin had 00:11:45.029 --> 00:11:47.590 to completely change the physics of his performance. 00:11:48.210 --> 00:11:50.330 He couldn't be the technical wrestling machine 00:11:50.330 --> 00:11:53.629 that stunning Steve was. He had to become a brawler, 00:11:53.990 --> 00:11:55.809 punching, kicking, stomping a mud hole in the 00:11:55.809 --> 00:11:58.529 corner. He relied entirely on his finishing move, 00:11:58.769 --> 00:12:00.809 the Stone Cold Stunner. Which is such an iconic 00:12:00.809 --> 00:12:03.700 move. It was brilliant because it didn't require 00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:06.480 lifting an opponent. It could be hit suddenly, 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:09.799 explosively on anyone. But mostly, he relied 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:13.000 on his sheer presence. The brawling style actually 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:16.379 fit the Stone Cold ethos perfectly. It didn't 00:12:16.379 --> 00:12:18.460 look like a choreographed athletic exhibition. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:21.399 It looked like a chaotic, desperate bar fight. 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:24.320 And the ultimate target for that brawling style 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:28.320 became his boss. The legendary feud with WWF 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.059 chairman Vince McMahon. The rivalry of a lifetime. 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:33.279 This is where the workplace fantasy goes into 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.460 overdrive. Austin is the blue collar rebel in 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:39.500 black boots. McMahon is the arrogant, tyrannical 00:12:39.500 --> 00:12:42.220 billionaire owner in a custom suit. And the things 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:45.399 Austin did to this man on live television. He 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:47.700 attacks McMahon in his hospital bed with a bed 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:50.419 pan. He literally drives his Amboni down to the 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:52.299 ring and jumps off the roof of it to clothesline 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:55.320 his boss. Classic. He kidnaps McMahon, drags 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.340 him to the ring, holds what looks like a weapon 00:12:57.340 --> 00:12:59.220 to his head, pulls the trigger, and a little 00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:01.460 scroll pops out that says, bang, 3 .1 cents. 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:04.399 And of course, driving a Coors Light beer truck 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:07.740 into the arena and hosing down the entire McMahon 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.740 family with hundreds of gallons of beer. What's 00:13:10.740 --> 00:13:13.080 fascinating here is the underlying economics 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:15.399 of this narrative. You have to look at the late 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:18.779 90s. Corporate restructuring, downsizing, the 00:13:18.779 --> 00:13:21.559 dot com bubble is building, and middle class 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:24.860 workers feel entirely alienated and disposable. 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:27.220 Yeah, everyone was frustrated. Exactly. This 00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:29.860 feud, this primal story of the blue collar employee 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.419 physically terrorizing the billionaire boss, 00:13:32.940 --> 00:13:35.440 it provided the ultimate weekly catharsis for 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:38.950 millions of viewers. And economically, it saved 00:13:38.950 --> 00:13:41.250 the WWF. Wait, it saved the whole company. Oh, 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:43.490 absolutely. It was the primary driver that allowed 00:13:43.490 --> 00:13:45.950 them to win the Monday Night Wars, destroying 00:13:45.950 --> 00:13:48.690 WCW, the very company that had fired Austin over 00:13:48.690 --> 00:13:51.450 the phone years earlier. Ratings meant advertising 00:13:51.450 --> 00:13:53.289 dollars, and everyone tuned in on Monday nights 00:13:53.289 --> 00:13:55.330 just to see what the crazy employee would do 00:13:55.330 --> 00:13:58.210 to the boss next. Talk about sweet revenge against 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:01.570 Bischoff. But as incredibly lucrative as the 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:03.970 television product was, the intense physical 00:14:03.970 --> 00:14:07.370 toll of that neck injury, combined with mounting 00:14:07.370 --> 00:14:10.370 creative frustrations behind the scenes, it eventually 00:14:10.370 --> 00:14:14.009 led to a very real, very messy breaking point. 00:14:14.669 --> 00:14:17.110 Yeah. The lines between the rebellious character 00:14:17.110 --> 00:14:20.009 and the exhausted human being began to fray. 00:14:20.450 --> 00:14:22.190 They didn't just fray, they snapped. They did. 00:14:22.730 --> 00:14:25.850 Here's where it gets really interesting. In 2002, 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:29.700 Austin just walks out. He quits. The WWF wanted 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:32.259 him to lose a qualifying match on unadvertised 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:34.879 free television to a brand new rookie named Brock 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:37.700 Lesnar with absolutely zero storyline buildup. 00:14:37.899 --> 00:14:39.960 From a branding perspective, Austin saw this 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.679 as management completely setting fire to a massive 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:45.679 asset for no emotional payoff. Right. It's like 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:48.139 Marvel deciding to kill off Iron Man in a random 00:14:48.139 --> 00:14:50.639 unadvertised Tuesday morning cartoon instead 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:52.720 of saving it for the climax of an Avengers movie. 00:14:52.980 --> 00:14:54.879 From a business standpoint, it made no sense. 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:56.899 So Austin said absolutely not and he went home. 00:14:57.080 --> 00:14:59.419 But while he was home, away from the corporate 00:14:59.419 --> 00:15:02.019 machine, the reality of his life took a very 00:15:02.019 --> 00:15:04.799 serious, very dark turn. It did. And we need 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:07.139 to look closely and impartially at the facts 00:15:07.139 --> 00:15:09.799 presented in the sources here, because they detail 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.059 significant real -life controversies. In June 00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:15.779 2002, police were called to Austin's home by 00:15:15.779 --> 00:15:18.460 his wike at the time, wrestling manager, Debra 00:15:18.460 --> 00:15:21.100 Marshall. According to the police report she 00:15:21.100 --> 00:15:23.679 told officers Austin had hit her and left the 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:26.419 house. He was subsequently charged with domestic 00:15:26.419 --> 00:15:29.870 abuse Ultimately, he pleaded no contest to the 00:15:29.870 --> 00:15:32.850 charges. He received a year's probation, a $1 00:15:32.850 --> 00:15:36.049 ,000 fine, and was ordered to perform 80 hours 00:15:36.049 --> 00:15:38.889 of community service. And the sources also note 00:15:38.889 --> 00:15:41.149 that years later, Debra Marshall claimed that 00:15:41.149 --> 00:15:43.789 the company was entirely aware of the abuse and 00:15:43.789 --> 00:15:45.629 actively worked to cover it up because revealing 00:15:45.629 --> 00:15:48.190 it would cost them millions of dollars. Yes. 00:15:48.409 --> 00:15:50.509 Austin filed for divorce shortly after the incident. 00:15:50.590 --> 00:15:53.250 And in a 2003 magazine interview, he expressed 00:15:53.250 --> 00:15:55.450 regret over the breakdown of the relationship 00:15:55.450 --> 00:15:58.139 while strictly denying allegations that the incident 00:15:58.139 --> 00:16:01.659 was alcohol related. It is a stark sobering reminder 00:16:01.659 --> 00:16:04.320 of the complex and troubling realities that often 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:07.159 exist behind the larger -than -life entertainment 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:10.279 personas we consume. The man behind the character 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:13.620 had hit a profound personal rock bottom during 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:16.559 this absence from the ring. He does eventually 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:20.019 negotiate a return to the company in 2003, but 00:16:20.019 --> 00:16:22.580 the physical damage to his body was already terminal. 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:27.120 Just hours before WrestleMania 19 in 2003, he 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:29.080 is rushed to the hospital with a dangerously 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:31.519 high heart rate and nervous twitchiness. It was 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:33.840 a very scary situation. He checks himself out 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.100 anyway, goes to the stadium, wrestles his match 00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:38.960 against The Rock, loses, and quietly retires. 00:16:39.100 --> 00:16:41.580 He steps away from the ring entirely, but his 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:43.940 cultural footprint, it completely refused to 00:16:43.940 --> 00:16:46.009 fade. Which is remarkable, you know, given how 00:16:46.009 --> 00:16:48.509 fast pop culture usually moves on from retired 00:16:48.509 --> 00:16:51.330 athletes. But Austin left behind artifacts that 00:16:51.330 --> 00:16:53.269 kept his presence alive and actively engaged 00:16:53.269 --> 00:16:54.809 with the audience even when he wasn't in the 00:16:54.809 --> 00:16:57.809 building. Like the what chant. In 2001, he started 00:16:57.809 --> 00:16:59.710 this thing where he would interrupt people during 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.470 their speeches by just yelling, what? At the 00:17:02.470 --> 00:17:04.849 end of their sentences. And he caught on like 00:17:04.849 --> 00:17:07.900 wildfire. I really have to ask, why did this 00:17:07.900 --> 00:17:11.240 specific, frankly annoying chant survive in arena 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:14.240 crowds for over two decades? Because he essentially 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:16.680 open -sourced his character. He gave the audience 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:19.039 a verbal wekan they could use to hijack any show 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:21.619 if they were bored, or to interact with a performer 00:17:21.619 --> 00:17:24.539 they loved or hated. It was early analog viral 00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:27.039 crowdsourcing, a full decade before Twitter. 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:30.420 It permanently embedded Austin's voice in the 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:32.319 vocal cords of the audience. That makes total 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:34.779 sense. So the chant lives on, and Austin builds 00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:37.700 surprisingly prolific second act. He gets into 00:17:37.700 --> 00:17:39.700 acting. He's in the longest yard, the expendables, 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.480 the condemned. He hosts reality shows like Broken 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:44.920 Skull Challenge. He becomes a massive success 00:17:44.920 --> 00:17:47.200 of podcasting, eventually moving his interview 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:50.319 show to the WWE Network. He partners with a brewery 00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:52.859 to launch his own highly successful beer, Broken 00:17:52.859 --> 00:17:55.160 Skull IPA. Which is really good, by the way. 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:57.119 Is it? I haven't tried it. And he even takes 00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:00.099 up off -road desert racing, winning a UTV championship 00:18:00.099 --> 00:18:03.779 in 2024. He successfully transitioned the stone 00:18:03.779 --> 00:18:06.339 -cold moniker from a wrestling character into 00:18:06.339 --> 00:18:10.559 a genuine lifestyle brand. The beer, the podcasts, 00:18:11.339 --> 00:18:13.599 the racing, they aren't deviations. They all 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:16.779 project that exact same authentic no -nonsense 00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:19.359 blue -collar attitude. which perfectly set the 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:22.299 stage for what happened 19 years after he quietly 00:18:22.299 --> 00:18:25.940 retired. In 2022 at WrestleMania 38 in his home 00:18:25.940 --> 00:18:28.779 state of Texas, he actually returns for a critically 00:18:28.779 --> 00:18:31.440 praised, full -blown match against Kevin Owens. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:33.880 Nobody saw that coming. He wins, drinks a bunch 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:36.400 of beer, hits the center. And then he shows up 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:39.420 again at WrestleMania 41 in 2025, crashing an 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:41.579 ATV into the barricade. It was like he never 00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:44.059 lost his step. And the reason those nostalgic 00:18:44.059 --> 00:18:47.299 returns work so flawlessly is tied directly back 00:18:47.299 --> 00:18:49.359 to how he had to adapt after his neck injury 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:51.980 in 1997 because the Stone Cold character was 00:18:51.980 --> 00:18:54.019 never built on acrobatic youth or high -flying 00:18:54.019 --> 00:18:55.980 athleticism. Right. It was all attitude. Exactly. 00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:58.700 It was built on brawling, sheer physical presence, 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:01.559 and pure attitude. And attitude simply doesn't 00:19:01.559 --> 00:19:03.619 age out. You can flip someone off and hit a stunner 00:19:03.619 --> 00:19:05.960 at 35, and you can do it just as effectively 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:09.099 at 58. So what does this all mean? We started 00:19:09.099 --> 00:19:11.220 this deep dive looking at a college football 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:13.420 dropout who got fired over the phone for being 00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:16.059 unmarketable. We watched him take a terrible 00:19:16.059 --> 00:19:18.480 corporate haircut, a serendipitous cup of tea, 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:21.799 and a life -altering neck injury and forge all 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:24.279 of that adversity into one of the most lucrative 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:26.880 and recognizable characters in modern entertainment 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:29.259 history. This raises an important question for 00:19:29.259 --> 00:19:32.140 you, the listener. If you look closely at Austin's 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:34.779 early struggles, he was failing miserably when 00:19:34.779 --> 00:19:38.180 he was trying to fit into a mold. Stunning Steve, 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:40.700 the Ringmaster. These were top -down corporate 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:42.880 ideas of what success was supposed to look like. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:45.279 Yeah, someone else's idea of success. Exactly. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:48.480 It wasn't until he embraced his raw, unfiltered, 00:19:48.759 --> 00:19:51.799 authentic self, even the angry, deeply frustrated 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:55.019 parts, that he found his true value. It makes 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:57.240 you wonder how often we try to fit ourselves 00:19:57.240 --> 00:19:59.480 into the Ringmaster costume when we really just 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:01.460 need to shave our heads and speak our minds. 00:20:01.740 --> 00:20:04.279 That is a brilliant point. And it brings me back. 00:20:04.670 --> 00:20:06.609 to that workplace fantasy we talked about at 00:20:06.609 --> 00:20:08.549 the very beginning of the show, because there 00:20:08.549 --> 00:20:11.710 is this massive unavoidable paradox at the heart 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:14.650 of the Stone Cold Steve Austin story. His entire 00:20:14.650 --> 00:20:17.970 iconic persona was based entirely on rebelling 00:20:17.970 --> 00:20:20.470 against corporate authority, sticking it to the 00:20:20.470 --> 00:20:24.190 man, trashing the boss's car. Right. Yet in doing 00:20:24.190 --> 00:20:26.930 so, he generated hundreds of millions of dollars 00:20:26.930 --> 00:20:30.359 for a massive corporation. By pretending to be 00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:33.059 the company's absolute worst nightmare, he effectively 00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:35.480 became the ultimate company man. It really makes 00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:37.480 you think about the paradox of anti -corporate 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:39.519 rebellion and how easily our desire to fight 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:41.640 the system can be packaged, bottled, and sold 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:43.779 right back to us by the very corporations we 00:20:43.779 --> 00:20:45.720 love to hate. Just something to mull over the 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:47.500 next time you feel like flipping off your boss.