Stone Cold Steve Austin was the biggest star in professional wrestling. So why did WWE turn its most popular hero into a villain?
Jim Cornette breaks down one of the most controversial booking decisions in WWE history: Stone Cold Steve Austin’s shocking heel turn at WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001, when the Texas Rattlesnake joined forces with his longtime enemy, Vince McMahon, to defeat The Rock.
From his early days in WCW and his transformation from The Ringmaster into Stone Cold Steve Austin to the legendary Austin 3:16 promo, Cornette revisits the rise of the superstar who helped define WWE’s Attitude Era. He explains how Austin’s rebellious persona, iconic rivalry with Mr. McMahon, and connection with wrestling fans helped WWF defeat WCW in the Monday Night Wars.
But after years of record-breaking success, WWE made a decision Cornette believes destroyed the very character that made Austin a phenomenon. Why turn wrestling’s biggest hero into a bad guy? And what happened when fans were suddenly expected to boo the man they’d spent years cheering?
Cornette shares his unfiltered perspective on Austin’s heel turn, the fallout for WWE, and the booking mistake he believes professional wrestling never fully recovered from.
About Cornette Side of the Ring:
Legendary wrestling manager and historian Jim Cornette pulls back the curtain on outrageous, infamous, and unforgettable moments in pro wrestling, offering his unfiltered perspective and opinions in a companion series to Dark Side of the Ring.
#Sports #Wrestling #WWE
00:00 How WWE ruined Stone Cold Steve Austin
00:27 The rise of Steve Austin
01:03 Eric Bischoff fires Austin from WCW
01:33 Austin arrives in the WWF as The Ringmaster
02:07 The birth of Stone Cold Steve Austin
02:40 Austin finds his voice
02:52 The legendary Austin 3:16 promo
03:20 Stone Cold becomes wrestling’s biggest hero
04:11 The iconic Stone Cold vs. Mr. McMahon rivalry
05:02 Why fans connected with Austin
05:31 Stone Cold helps WWF win the Monday Night Wars
06:11 The decision to turn Austin heel
06:36 WrestleMania 17: Austin joins Vince McMahon
07:07 Why the heel turn betrayed the fans
07:43 The moment wrestling fans lost faith
08:06 Cornette on the damage to Austin’s character
08:44 WWE struggles without its biggest attraction
08:59 Why Austin’s villain persona didn’t work
09:39 Why WWE never needed to change Stone Cold
10:07 The fallout from Austin’s heel turn
10:25 Cornette’s warning about taking fans for granted
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I can only imagine what King's reaction would've been if he was there with Jim Ross instead of Paul Heyman. Either way,2001 was a bad year to be an Austin fan in my opinion. 1996-1999 Were peak Austin years.
As bad as it made the business, still made some great memories
And I don't care how many people try to push the narrative. The Attitude Era began June 23 1996.
Vince always took the WORST stunners!
An Austin heel turn could have worked, but the fans needed to get sick of him first like with Hogan. I don't think people were at that point in 2001.
For anyone complaining about how wrestlers have to change their name because someone else is using it (like Viper changing her name to Piper Niven due to Randy Orton having the nickname Viper) just remember Steve Williams changed his name to Steve Austin due to another Steve Williams (Dr Death) so it did huge wonders for him. Wasn't a fan of his heel turn in 2001 nor his theme changes but that's life. 'Nuff said!
Corney is extremely intelligent, knows the business literally inside and out, and is excessively insightful — but sometimes he need to pull himself out of 1975 and embrace the 21st century. It's not real, my guy, and we need to stop enabling the people that are thinking/treating it like it is. Because that's delusion and it's dangerous. People used to literally try to kill heels back in the day; to Corney, that was just good heat. Fans are "smarter" these days, but just barely, and it aint gon take much to nudge some of them over the edge. I respect the hell out of Cornette for his accomplishments and knowledge (and hatred of Vince GD Russo), but sometimes him being old gets old.
I somewhat disagree with this telling of history. Yes, the Austin turn was terrible but it also occured at the same time WCW and ECW went out of business and then the failed invasion really killed everyone's hope of wrestling being a war again. The Austin turn didn't help matters but it wasn't single handedly the reason for WWE's decline. The other companies closing had way more to do with it. There wasn't a 3 way war anymore that created massive interest in wrestling like there was for the years prior.
I was a kid. It gave me lots of laughs after the initial disappointment.
Jim is vice
I'm still mystified that people consider that Rock/Austin match at 17 a goated match when the ending was THAT horrible
I liked Austin as a heel. Was great to see him act like a complete nut.
What the hell ever. Stone cold and Kurt angle was some of the best stuff
I tell u wat, as horrific as this Austin heel turn was, it pales in comparison to the shite they did with Cena last year 😂😂😂😂 at least Austin tried to live his heel character,Cena was just a tragic mess as a bad guy
That stone cold heel run was actually comedy gold!!
Hope Jim covers The Two Man Power Trip.
When austin turn and went with vince I checked out..he didnt need to be with vince
Unbelievable that they fumbled the return of “‘THE OLD STONE COLD!’” at InVasion!
One of the many reasons I stopped being a fan was all the goofball gimmicks that started surfacing in the WWF in the eighties. My go to's were the NWA Jim Crocket Promotions and the territories for gritty realistic wrestling. When stupid WWF style shit started infecting all of wrestling, that was really the end for me.
The WWF started the ball rolling taking their fans for complete idiots. The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, no explanation how he went from being Ted DiBiase in the UWF to suddenly being this rich jackass throwing his weight and money around. Rick the Model Martel, WTF? The Repo Man?? El Matador?? The Texas Tornado?? The Red Rooster??? All established talent made to look like fools.
The Widowmaker Barry Windham was the straw that really broke the camel's back.
Barry walks out to the ring and Mcmahon on commentary says, "Don't know much about the Widowmaker."
WWF tag champ with Mike Rotunda as the U.S. Express in '85. You don't know much about him? Really?? Turned the T.V. off and walked away.
I didnt think the turn was bad. He turned into a nervous wreck that kept hugging vince mcmahon, singing kum by ya to vince and the interactions with kurt angle were fantastic.
Still get goosebumps when his music hits 😂
Stone Cold was actually hilarious during this period tho 😂
another reason for the ratings dip is there was a segment of the wcw audience that didn't care about wwf and never jumped over to see their favorites to get buried.
also one of the earliest times I can remember the internet smarks influencing booking, the internet was pretty sick of Austin by 2001,
I remember following the live royal rumble '01 thread on ign ( or some other wrestling newz site) and every comment was begging Kane to botch and dump Austin over the top rope,
Austin turning heel presented the problem of not having a super baby face to feud with,
HHH should've turned face at the same time because he was getting massive organic fan support but either wanted to stay heel or they wanted to keep austin/hhh for wm18,
undertaker/kane were shit on by smark fans every week and finally we got benoit/jericho going over the 2 man power trip.
cannot believe they ever contemplated turning Austin heel in Texas
Cornette is a national treasure man lol. He could talk about a subject beat to death and still bring new life into it.
I liked Austin most when he was in his early Stone Cold persona and still a heel. I started losing interest after his face turn against Bret.
While I appreciated the talent of the man, I hated the whole Stone Cold character. He was morally repugnant. People forget one of the Stone Cold things he did, and it was such stupid writing, was that if he was in a brawl, and was getting beat up, if someone ran out to help and turned the tide, Austin would turn on them and stunner them. This happened ALL THE TIME. It made Stone Cold a scumbag and it buried the other wrestler; would would anyone come out and help someone who would attack you right afterwards? It made the other wrestlers look so stupid. Just awful booking. The only time 'Stone Cold' worked for me was when he was up against characters that were scummier than him, HHH/Stephanie and VKM.
Just wasn't my cup of tea, Austin was the babyface that I booed.
Well, they did it because they could. WCW and ECW was gone, so creative did the turn and it backed fired…..completely. Plus the Rock was leaving for Hollywood.
Dude was injured. Couldn't wrestle as much after Owen broke his neck. He was the original Part-Timer. 😂 the Heel-turn was perfect if you think about it.