Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the most iconic wrestlers of all time, and is known by nearly every fan of wrestling dating back the last couple of decades. Recently, the legendary superstar sat down with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his podcast to discuss his wrestling career, how he warmed up in the ring, and how he ended up getting the “Stone Cold” nickname.
According to Austin, so many wrestlers have different warm up routines, but for him, it was all about not looking ashy. “For me, because I was always kind of lily white … because I was always so ashy … so my routine was, wave my arms a couple of times, I may do a couple of pushups, but I’d pour water all over me to give me a sheen, “ he said. ”So I didn’t look so ashy white on camera.”
When asked about where Austin got his iconic nickname from, he told a story about how Vince McMahon called him up about coming into the WWE. “I had already met with Vince McMahon three times, and I could see they didn’t have any interest in me as a superstar,” he said. “They were bringing me in as what we call in the business as a mechanic, a guy who is very proficient in the ring and can have good matches with anybody.”
Fang McFrost. Otto Von Ruthless. Ice Dagger.
Hellllllllll no. He's Stone Cold @steveaustinBSR.
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When Austin was brought in initially to wrestle as The Ringmaster and to have Ted DiBiase as his manager, he wasn’t a fan, but signed up anyway. Things changed quickly, however, when inspiration struck in a strange form. “I knew that there was no future in being The Ringmaster, and so I was at the house in my log cabin … and I watched this show on HBO about that serial killer Richard Kuklinski, who was a hitman,” he said. “And I don’t endorse nothing the guy did, but the guy was called Ice Man because he was very cold blooded.”
Austin went on to describe how he called up the WWE and pitched his idea of being a remorseless, cold blooded heel, including the Ice Man name. Unfortunately for him, an “Ice Man” wrestler already existed, so Austin was sent a sheet of potential names. “They sent me three pages of these horrible names. Fang McFrost, Otto Von Ruthless, and Ice Dagger … My wife at the time was from England, and they drink hot tea over there. So, she brought me a cup of hot tea and said ‘Drink it before it gets stone cold,” and she said ‘That’s your name, Stone Cold Steve Austin.’”
Austin said he took the idea and immediately ran it by the WWE, and as we all know, the rest is history. It’s a funny story for how a character such as Austin came up with his character, and goes to show that inspiration can strike in any way.
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