Stone Cold Steve Austin

Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964, later and formerly Steven James Williams),better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. 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), which later became World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. Billed as "The Most Popular Superstar in WWE History",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 his boss, Vince McMahon.This defiance was often shown by Austin flipping off McMahon and incapacitating him with the Stone Cold Stunner, his finishing move.[5] McMahon inducted Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.
Austin held nineteen championships throughout his professional wrestling career, and is recognized by WWE as a six-time world champion, having held the WWF Championship on six occasions, and 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 sustained throughout his career. 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 reality series Tough Enough.
After some time, Austin decided to become a professional wrestler and enrolled at the wrestling school run by Chris Adams, whose school was run out of the Dallas Sportatorium where he was wrestling for World Class Championship Wrestling. Austin made his debut in World Class in 1989 under his real name, but was later given the name "Steve Austin" by Memphis-area booker Dutch Mantel. Austin's run in Memphis was part of the merger between World Class and the Continental Wrestling Association out of Memphis, with the combined company known as the United States Wrestling Association. Austin would eventually return to Dallas and feud with Adams, with Percy Pringle and Jeannie Adams (Adams' real-life former wife and Austin's girlfriend at the time) as his valets. It was during this time Austin adopted the "Stunning" nickname that followed him to WCW.
In 1995, Austin was fired by WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff, after suffering a triceps injury, while wrestling on a Japanese tour; Bischoff and WCW did not see Austin as a 'marketable' wrestler. Austin described his opinion on being fired over the phone as Eric Bischoff taking the coward's way out. Eventually, Austin was contacted by Paul Heyman of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), who had managed him in WCW.Heyman hired Austin to do in-ring interviews, as he still had not recovered from his injury enough to wrestle.While in ECW, Austin used the platform to develop his future "Stone Cold" persona as well as a series of vignettes running down WCW in general and Bischoff in particular.

While with ECW, Austin was known as "Superstar" Steve Austin.[22] He had a match with The Sandman and feuded with Mikey Whipwreck.[22] Whipwreck, who was the ECW World Heavyweight Champion at the time, defeated Austin at November to Remember.[23] The Sandman defeated Steve Austin and Whipwreck in a Triple Threat match at December to Dismember in 1995 for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.[24] Heyman would later state that he had wanted Austin to win the ECW Title, but Austin had refused because he felt he was more effective "as the hunter, rather than the hunted."
On September 22, 1997, on the first ever Monday Night Raw to be broadcast from Madison Square Garden, Owen Hart was giving a speech to the fans in attendance. During his speech, Austin entered the ring with five NYPD officers following, and assaulted Hart. As if it looked Austin was going to fight the officers, Vince McMahon ran into the ring to lecture Austin about why he couldn't be "physically" able to compete. After telling McMahon that he respects the fact that he and the WWF cared, Austin attacked McMahon with a Stone Cold Stunner, leaving McMahon in shock. Austin was then arrested on charges of trespassing, assault, and assaulting a police officer. This marked the beginning of the Austin-McMahon rivalry.
Beginning 2002, although Austin's character remained with the WWF's most popular wrestlers as top face, it was somewhat uncertain regarding his upcoming story lines in the build-up to WrestleMania. In the 2002 Royal Rumble, Triple H made his long awaited return from injury, with he and Austin two of the last four participants in the ring along with Kurt Angle and Mr Perfect. Austin was eliminated by Kurt Angle, however he shortly went back in the ring and hit all the last three with a steel chair. A few days later on Raw he defeated Kurt Angle to earn a WWF Undisputed title shot against Chris Jericho at No Way Out 2002.
In early 2011, Austin was announced as the head trainer and host for the revival of WWE Tough Enough. On the March 7 edition of Raw, Austin interrupted the contract signing of the special guest referee to the Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler match at WrestleMania XXVII, originally scheduled to be John "Bradshaw" Layfield. After stunning Layfield, Austin signed the contract instead and became the official guest referee for the scheduled match. Although Lawler won by submission, the anonymous Raw General Manager reversed the decision and disqualified Lawler, claiming that Austin had "overstepped his authority". He appeared on Raw the following night with the cast from Tough Enough, while also getting into an altercation with The Miz and Alex Riley
On April 7, 2011, Austin gave an Interview where he talked about his return, filming Tough Enough and the respect he has for CM Punk. Austin was asked about a return to the ring and said that he felt that if he had to, he had two more years in him and could still do a full-time schedule. However, he then stated that he was happy with where he was at in life and wanted to be able to hunt and fish 10–20 years from now and be able to do it pain free.
Steve Austin filmed guest roles on Celebrity Deathmatch and Nash Bridges, where he played Detective Jake Cage. His motion picture debut was in a supporting role as Guard Dunham in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard. Austin had his first starring film role, as Jack Conrad, a dangerous convict awaiting execution in a Salvadoran prison, who takes part in a illegal deathmatch game that is being broadcast to the public in the 2007 thriller The Condemned. In 2010, Austin appeared in the film The Expendables as Dan Paine, the bodyguard and right hand man for the primary antagonist of the film. This role featured Austin working alongside other action stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Randy Couture. It has been suggested by Bruce Willis that he will return for a sequel of The Expendables.