Steve Austin

Steve Austin (born December 18, 1964),^[1] better known by his ring name "Stone Cold"Steve Austin, is a television actor, producer, and retired professional wrestler signed toWWE in a Legends deal. Austin wrestled for several well-known wrestling promotions such as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and most famously, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Described by WWE (formerly the WWF) chairman Vince McMahon as the most profitable wrestler in the company's history,^[2] he gained significant mainstream popularity in the WWF during the mid-to-late 1990s as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, a disrespectful, beer-drinking antihero who routinely defied McMahon, his boss.^[3] This defiance was often shown by Austin flipping offMcMahon and incapacitating him with the Stone Cold Stunner, his finishing move.^[4]McMahon inducted Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.

Austin held twenty five championships throughout his professional wrestling career, and is a 6-time WWF Champion as well as the fifth Triple Crown Champion. He was also the winner of the 1996 King of the Ring tournament, as well as the 1997, 1998 and 2001 Royal Rumbles. He was forced to retire from in ring competition in early 2003 due to a series of knee and neck injuries . Throughout the rest of 2003 and 2004, he was featured as the Co-General Manager and "Sheriff" of Raw. Since 2005, he has continued to make occasional appearances. In 2011, Steve Austin returned to WWE to host the reboot of the reality series Tough Enough.