Stone Cold Steve Austin

Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American retired professional wrestler, media personality and actor.

Austin was born Steven James Anderson in Austin, Texas, on December 18, 1964.

His parents, Beverly (née Harrison) and James Anderson, divorced when he was around a year old.

His mother moved to Edna, Texas, where Austin would spend most of his childhood, and she married Ken Williams in 1968.

Austin adopted his stepfather's surname and legally changed his name to Steven James Williams, after he was legally adopted, though he would legally change it again to Steve Austin later in life.

He has a younger sister named Jennifer and three brothers named Scott, Kevin, and Jeff.

Kevin is less than a year younger than Austin, leading Austin to theorize in his autobiography that their father may have left because he could not handle another child so soon.

After finishing his education at Edna High School, he got a football scholarship to Wharton County Junior College followed by a full scholarship to the University of North Texas.

He played originally as a linebacker before suffering a knee injury, prompting him to switch to play as a defensive end.

The first wrestling events Austin watched were those produced by Houston Wrestling and run by Paul Boesch, and Austin would later say, "I fell in love with the business when I was seven or eight years old. All I ever wanted to be was a professional wrestler. Wrestling was the biggest thing in my life."

When he moved to attend university, he was living approximately 30 miles from the Dallas Sportatorium, a building he later described fondly as a "magnificent shithole of a building".

It was here that World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) ran shows on a Friday night.

Deciding to become a wrestler, Austin joined "Gentleman" Chris Adams' school in the Dallas Sportatorium, where Adams also wrestled for WCCW.

The first seminar cost Austin $45.

Adams' training was purely technical, teaching Austin the moves, but nothing relating to kayfabe (still somewhat a guarded secret at the time) or business.

Austin would later describe Adams as a "conman" who "didn't try to smarten [him] up or teach [him] the real deal when it came to wrestling".

Austin began his professional wrestling career in 1989, after playing college football at the University of North Texas.

His first lesson in that came from Tony Falk, the referee in his 1989 televised WCCW debut against Frogman LeBlanc, who called the spots to lead him to a pinfall and a $40 payday.

Early influences on his career were the Von Erich family, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair.

Initially working under his real name, he was renamed Steve Austin by Memphis booker Dutch Mantell during the merger of WCCW and the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) into the United States Wrestling Association (USWA).

The name change occurred to avoid confusion with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, a well-known wrestler during that time.

Austin later returned to Dallas, managed by Percy Pringle and accompanied by Jeannie Adams (Adams's ex-girlfriend and Austin's girlfriend at the time) and feuded with Adams and his wife Toni.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) during the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

He signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1991 and adopted the persona of "Stunning" Steve Austin, a villainous in-ring technician, and he won the WCW World Television Championship and the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship twice each, alongside the WCW World Tag Team Championship and NWA World Tag Team Championship once each with Brian Pillman (as the Hollywood Blondes).

Austin debuted in World Championship Wrestling in May 1991.

He was nicknamed "Stunning" Steve Austin, a name and gimmick he later said he could not commit to.

Austin was originally paired with a valet named Vivacious Veronica but was later joined by Jeannie Adams, known as "Lady Blossom".

Just weeks after his debut, Austin defeated Bobby Eaton for his first WCW World Television Championship on June 3, 1991, and later that year joined Paul E. Dangerously's Dangerous Alliance.

Austin lost the WCW World Television Championship to Barry Windham in a two-out-of-three-falls match on April 27, 1992, but later regained the championship from Windham.

He enjoyed a second lengthy reign as champion, before losing the championship to Ricky Steamboat, while the Dangerous Alliance disbanded shortly thereafter.

In August and September 1992, as part of a working agreement between WCW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Austin wrestled four matches in Japan.

After a brief stint in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Austin signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1995.

In the WWF, Austin was repackaged as a short-tempered, brash, anti-establishment antihero named "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, becoming the most popular wrestler of the Attitude Era off the back of his feud with company chairman Mr. McMahon.

He won the WWF Championship six times, the WWF Intercontinental Championship twice, the Million Dollar Championship once, and the WWF Tag Team Championship four times, making him the fifth WWF Triple Crown Champion.

He is also a record three-time Royal Rumble winner, won the 1996 King of the Ring, and headlined multiple WWF pay-per-view events, including WrestleMania (its flagship event) four times.

He was forced to retire from in-ring competition in 2003 after multiple knee injuries and a serious neck injury at the 1997 SummerSlam event, making sporadic appearances ever since.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, and returned for a one-off match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022.

Austin hosts the podcast The Steve Austin Show (2013–present), and the video podcast Broken Skull Sessions (2019–present) available on the WWE Network and Peacock.

He collaborates with El Segundo Brewing on Broken Skull IPA and Broken Skull American Lager.

He also hosted the reality competition series Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge (2014–2017) and Straight Up Steve Austin (2019–2021).