Steve Austin's Worst Career Moments - Happy  

Fun fact: Pillman's "9mm Glock" wasn't even a Glock. It was Fake Glock, played by none other than Glenn Jacobs!

In regards to the heel turn: The crowd did go home happy. They had no idea Austin turned heel. Everyone there literally thought McMahon turned face.

“Why was there a kiddie pool out in November?” Brian Zane asking the REAL questions on this channel.

Without the heel turn we wouldn't have gotten Kurt Angle in that cowboy hat or SCSA singing kambaya. Two classic scenes that still make me laugh.

Austin being his own biggest critic is what lead to the heel turn. He did it because HE himself felt he was getting stale as a character. He also still beats himself up over the 2002 walk out as well as not taking the match with Hogan.

No, ZZane, no... That segment with Stone Cold at the empty Performance Center was peak David Lynch.

9:38 Seeing Scott Hall's sell for Austin's stunner left an emotional tear from my eye (in more ways than one). I can't wait to see Brian Zane make a Top 8 on your career, chico. RIP Scott Hall.

Not gonna lie, but Pillman 9mm was awesome especially that look Brian has. I love Jim Cornette's facial expression during an episode of Dark Side of the Ring when the segment is brought up. It was refreshing to see Stone Cold Steve Austin beat up the NWO too. RIP Scott Hall

5:42 Fang McFrost still sounds like a character in the Count Chocula universe. I'd imagine his cereal would be mint chocolate flavored. Frosted chocolate pieces with mint marshmallows

pretty sure the worst career moment of Steve Austin's life was beating Debra

So if there's a best Austin moments list, pretty sure the supermarket brawl with Booker T (or just the whole angle of them fighting in random places altogether) will be in that, right?

Austin's few years in the business was just insane. WWF, Celebrity Deathmatch, Nash Bridges (yes, I watched those eps), so much going on at the time. It was insane.

Apparently Austin's Heel Turn was so bad that people in the arena thought that McMahon was turning face.

Its crazy that Stone Cold was really only with the company, full time, for 6 years and 3 of them at the top. I've often thought 2002 was the worst for him because his booking was all over the place and never consistent. It makes me wonder if Vince ever actually got Austin in the long run with how badly he was booked then and once everything with WCW ended, that is why Austin was booked like he was being in the mid card like he was.

That ending bit with the Stone Cold soap had me in stitches. I totally forgot about that.

*19:20* Say whatever about Austin's untimely heel turn/run but those heel entrances of him maniacally laughing and grinning coming down the ramp were fucking awesome/iconic.

The heel turn is old enough now to drink a steve-weiser lol. That was a great line! When he turned heel, it was one of the most disruptive and shocking moments for me as an 11 year old kid. I remember going to school the next day feeling confused and depressed. They should of never did that.

"We are just coming down of the rumors that he gonna have a Match at wrestlemania (..)" 😆 that aged pretty good hehe

3/14-pi day 3/15-ides of March 3/16-Austin day 3/17-St Patrick’s Day

"The heel turn is legally old enough to drink a Steveweiser." Hahahahahaha.

The problem with Austin’s heel turn isn’t that it was Vince or in his hometown, on paper those would guarantee the proper heat, the problem was that the fans weren’t receptive to it. Austin kept getting cheered. When that happens, you know the heel turn has failed.

I couldn't stop wondering why there was a kiddie pool out in November after this video. So I googled it. Turns out it was a decently mild 1996 in Walton, Kentucky getting as high as 77 on November 8th. The more you know.

I was at that Fall Brawl! I seem to remember the Duggan announcement getting a pop, but the short match was kind of rough. I'm also still disappointed I never got to see Steamboat wrestle in person, but that part isn't anyone's fault.

That Steve Austin empty arena segment was honestly hilarious to me, not gonna lie. I laugh every time I see it, maybe I have an awful sense of humor.

The Pillman with a gun Raw happened literally the second week I started watching pro wrestling. I was instantly hooked lol

"Here is your winner and NEEWWWWWWW WWE Champion......Chilly McFreeeeeeze!"

I was watching the Pillman segment live as a teen. I just stared at the tv in shock, one that The King was being a voice of reason screaming to call the cops, second thinking that Austin had been shot because they "lost the feed." It was enough that I didn't watch Monday Night Raw for a few months. But I was also the type to float back and forth during the War, I'd spend a few months watching Nitro then a few months watching Raw.

Honestly I would have switched the positions of 2 and 1 cause ya Austin’s heel turn was a bad booking decision but there was atleast some good things that came out of it, the same can’t be said about the botched pile driver because literally nothing good came out of it. It drastically altered both Owen and Austin’s careers for the worst and is a hell of a lot worse then a bad booking decision

The stupid WHAT chant is Austin's no.1 worst career move!! But for real, turnng heel just to become HHH's errand boy lol

Watching that heel turn live as a 5 year old Stone Cold fanatic was such a mind blowing experience. I’ll never forget how monumental that match and that ending truly was regardless on how much I feel like the heel turn shouldn’t have happened. Happy 3:16 Day and R.I.P. Scott Hall 🍻🙏🏻

I will forever love the line "when Austin 3:16 meets 9mm glock!"

I've decided that heel austin was some of his best character work as you describe. 2001 was a crazy good year for WWF that I've ignored for too long

Okay, probably the lone dissenter here. I like the Austin Heel turn in 2001. Austin was never meant to be a hero. He wasn’t the people’s champion, he wasn’t a crusader, he was a guy who always looked out for number 1. His take no bs attitude and win by any means might have endeared him to the crowd, but at his core, Stone Cold has always been about Stone Cold. He can’t beat the Rock. He can’t become champion. He needs it. He needs that title to justify his existence. So he approaches Vince and says “I don’t like you. Matter of fact, I have purposely tried to ruin your life on multiple occasions. You have made my life a living hell and cheated me out of what’s mine for years. However…the Rock is walking around with my belt. He is calling himself WWF champion. Nuh uh! Not gonna happen. So, you’ve seen you cannot control me. You know what it’s like to have me as an enemy. Imagine…imagine what we could do, what we could accomplish if we were friends.” I think if Austin gave this kind of promo the night after mania, I think it could have worked out. Make it clear that Austin wasn’t working for Vince, it was Vince that worked for Austin. But, maybe I’m crazy.

2002 might very well be the worst professional and personal year in Austin's life. From his sliding down the card, ultimately leading to him leaving, and of course the serious domestic abuse allegations from Debra.

What's really unfortunate about #3 is that there was a really easy way to fix it: just rebook the tournament to make Austin vs. Lesnar the KOTR Finals at the PPV. Everyone would've gotten what they wanted: Lesnar would've still gotten over huge, perhaps even more than he did, the WWE would still have gotten their big future champion, and Austin would've gotten to make a new star at a money show like he wanted to.

Yeah the ringmaster name was dumb but at least it wasn’t Chilly Mcfreeze

I'll still take the heel turn over the abrupt face turn that happened the day after Survivor Series 2001. Even with regards to the timing and how there wasn't a big enough face to take over, there was the plan for Triple H to turn face and feud with Austin sometime after they lost the tag titles on Raw, and seeds were planted for that split between the two. But then Triple H tore his quad.

For me, the end for Steve Austin in WCW was when he did the 30 second job to Jim Duggan at Fall Brawl 1994. What a travesty that was.

Happy 3.16 day, Bri-guy, thanks for getting me back into wrestling after a 20 year hiatus

That full length MegaRan intro goes so hard

Man, imagine how that wrestle mania heel turn would’ve gone if Austin has called a stunner on McMahon like he mentioned having considered iirc on his podcast. Might’ve gone from the worst moment to like. Probably not one of the best, but definitely would’ve been better

I appreciate you finding positives to take out of Steve Austin's post heel turn during the Alliance storyline, but the paranoid psycho character he came up with was still very dissonant from the type of character he was before, and particularly the abruptness of his character change made it less entertaining to me, and I think a lot of people felt the same way. But you know, I had been watching some of Steve Austin's heel work in WWF again, and you can tell he had a great talent for playing that type of entertaining bad guy, who could sometimes make you laugh and sometimes seemed absolutely ruthless. And of course he already did successful work as a heel with a hot wife manager before Debra, with Lady Blossom. So maybe the heel turn could have worked? IMO the real problem with it was that the WWE didn't do enough work on the storyline in the weeks leading to the turn, or the weeks after, to sell us on the idea that Steve would not only be willing to sell his soul to Vince, but become a completely different person in the process. Because if that turn happened without a personality change, people might have still hated it, but it would at least seem credible, and fans would keep tuned in to see what Steve was going to happen next. The fact that Steve was just so different a person just made the fans think about how the whole storyline was written poorly, which then brings attention to the fact that this was a wrestling storyline. The dissonance of Steve Austin becoming a cookie addicted corporate ass kisser, with no real good explanation of what happened, well it was like the transition between Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. It was just now what you expected, and not what you paid for, and that's why I do agree in the end that it's the worst thing in Austin's career. A sad but quick retirement from injuries would have been more dignified an exit than what actually played out for Steve

I'm sure this was filmed a while ago, good thing he didn't beat up Scott Hall too much. But then again Brian is ever the professional.

I think Austin's walk out wound up being massively beneficial for the WWE, once he was gone Vince was suddenly more focused on fixing the direction of the company which had drifted over the previous few months - he ended the tired nWo reboot, ended the storyline with him and Ric Flair being co-owners of the company, reshuffled the brand extension, brought in Eric Bischoff as GM etc.

LOL! I had JUST gone back to watch your older content, so that BRILLIANT call back at the end would've made little to no sense if I hadn't. Nice one! 🙂

I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA DO THE BYRON SAXTON CLIP!!!!!!! 😂

"Gimme a hell yeah!" (silence) "...Tough crowd."

The heel turn was absolutely catastrophic!... Steve Austin was too globally loved to ever be hated.

I would have loved to be in the room when they got the all clear in Pillmans house. Like they just have to awkwardly be like "alright everyone, shoots over. Good home invasion!" I imagine pillman just sitting there with the gun still trained on austin and he just makes a silly face to get a chuckle out of him.

Another great video from the z-man. I really hope you become all elite my friend. Your work with roh and everywhere else has shown you're such a great personality. I'd love to see you commentating or managing. You're worth the contract.

I knew exactly who was going to show up when your walked outside at the end 😆

Love the content Brian, great as always. The what chant maybe should've been higher on the list haha

Bro, the Pillman gun segment is legendary.

unrelated but RIP Big Scott Hall😔

How good is Stone Cold? There is at least a 99% chance the he beat the crap out of Debra irl and we ignored and forgot about it because we just love him that much. Oh I'm not shaming anyone for it. I'm just admitting it out loud.

I love this video, as always quality stuff and...wait. 10:37. Is that the long haired person that's at every show?

I think the real biggest oak stake with Austin’s 2001 heel turn is when he and Triple H hit Lita with that steel chair on RAW. Fans tuning out because of a lackluster turn is one thing, but I believe a large majority of casual fans were very put off by watching Steve beat a defenseless woman on National tv. Someone could fact check this, but I remember Bryan Alvarez reading the Nelson Ratings for RAW at the time and discovered that the RAW after that angle happened, the show suffered a months worth of viewership drop-off in that one week and they never really recovered those numbers.

This makes me wanna sign on to patreon so I can request that CSI episode where they duplicate the brusier Brody incident.

A runner up would be the Sheriff Austin character. Or as Triple H called him, "Barney Fife" or "Deputy Dog"...

Always look forward to a new video every Wednesday

“Why was there a kiddie pool out in November” good point. Lol never thought of that when I’ve watched that segment multiple times

I watched the Pillman segment live. I went to school the next day FREAKED THE HELL OUT

Fun fact: the first time I ever watched any raw was when Austin attacked pillmans house at the end! I didn't know who anyone was or why they were filling this crazy dude in a house with a shaking camera but I was hooked.

Awesome video buddy

Wanna know something funny? From what I've heard, RAW cut to a shaving commercial after Pillman pointed at Austin. "He's probably dead. Fancy a shave?"

The Pillman Austin house was an amazing segment

Definitely when he sang on the guitar after joining Vince.

I think the walkout was by far the worse. Looking at it from being 20 I was on Austin side. Being almost 40 now, both are a little right, both are wrong. But the WHAT chant should have been #1

I remember watching the 'Pillman's got a Gun' angle live. I live in Canada and it was the talk of the schoolyard for a good time after it happened. It was definitely over the top but got people talking about it. This was kind of rare during this time as pro wrestling wasn't very popular in 96 as only about 4,000 people attended the WWF house show in my town that year.

HELLLLL YEAHHHH! - Byron Saxton 2020

“Austin and Owen should’ve had careers that went at least till the late 2000s” The same can be said for any legend that died, retire, or suffered a career ending injury way before their time 😑

17:10 "Rattle off a few" see what you did there

Even after watching, I still can't fathom how a broken neck can come second to a heel turn.

I wouldn't have put the heel turn at #1 for the simple fact that there were a lot of great entertaining moments between Austin and Angle during it

A few weeks later, that stunner on Vince at Mania might need to be added to the list.

It's so cool to see clips of that Hall/Austin build to Mania again. The Smackdown that Hall was tied up in a freezer was in my town, Rockford Illinois. I still have the black and white polaroids I took as a 13 year old ( I forgot to order color photos lol). I think Hall took 7 stunners that night after they went off tv. 20 years ago last month and I still remember it so vividly. R.I.P. Scott Hall

That’s right JCW’s Great Muta

My favorite Stone cold wrestle Shawn Michael win the wrestling champion at wrestlemania 14 on March 29, 1998 From Boston

I remember that episode of Raw with the gunplay. It was very "I guess you guys aren't ready for that, but your kids are gonna love it." I didn't know what to make of it and neither did any of my friends, but when the Attitude Era went into full swing it started to make more sense.

What better way to celebrate my 29th birthday than with a new episode of Wrestling with Wregret.

In my opinion the Austin heel turn in 2001 would have worked. The exact ending at Wrestlemania but no Vince involvement and association. Build it in the weeks after Wrestlemania. A lone Psychopath obsessed with holding the WWF title at any cost.

1:12 That segment was incredible.

Hey, we can't just crap on Byron's attempt at celebrating 3:16 day with Austin two years ago. I mean, he was (accidentally) shot straight into Dick Kick City by Austin before getting hit with the Stunner. Clearly, the man was already punished enough for his attempt at being "with it".

Brian, I'm curious if you ever watch any other wrestling review shows like OSW Review? I have to say W3 and OSW are two of my favorite channels on RU-vid!

What is boggling about censorship is how violence is perfectly fine, but saying shit is crossing the line. You can have someone beat the bloody shot outta someone with captain America’s shield, but the moment you say “shit” all of a sudden you crossed the line

Ooh, a new Wregret video! Lemme grab a beer... a cerveza... a brewski... a cerveza...

That Austin singing bit at the end was awful. Lmaooo, love it.

The heel turn could have worked if the Rock stayed around. He showed in 98/99 you can switch from baby-heel-baby in a short space of time and it can create an interesting story. That they let Austin turn heel a day before Rock left for four months is madness, both top faces gone. They didn’t even do anything to elevate Jericho beforehand either. I think an inverted storyline of Austin getting one over Rock due to paranoia could have worked, but only if the Rock was there. Insanely stupid

Was just thinking more about the heel turn recently and I think one other element was that his theme song didn’t properly change. They did that one song that was used once on a show, then was his default in Smackdown: Just Bring It, but that glass shattered sound gets fans hyped, whether he was face or heel. They should have stuck with the heel song to help double down on that. Then it would make that face turn more effective.

I can’t help but love the Pillman 9mm segment. It’s surreal and badass imo

Wow I never really thought about how quick Austin's run was (especially compared to Hogan or even Cena's runs at the top). Absolutely insane.

I just want to say the timing of you putting a Scott Hall moment on this list R.I.P Scott Hall

I did watch the Pillman gun stunt when it first aired. I was a little stunned to say the least

I remember having that TV Guide from the beginning haha

I remember seeing the USA incident live. It was gripping. I would have been about 16 or so and it absolutely had my friends and I talking WWF quite a bit.

Cool ending. I was at that Raw where Austin and Rock sang Margaritaville

STEVE IS A LEADING FIGURE IN THE INDUSTRY...his politicking has been scrutinised but it wasn't quite as bad as Leveque or Bollea .. but it happened... his work rate was impeccable even though he had to brawl up his previous style of ring work.. No real worries there with his career.. I thank him for his work .. Thank you Mr Zane for your erudite video... Go wash up and gimmie a hell yeah 😎 🤪

I watched the Pillman thing live as a 15 year old, and IT WAS AMAZINGGGGGG!

I find hysterical zane hates the what chant. Cause i love it 😂

I remember He was in wwe tough enough he said to the Elimators about his story he said He got a call from vince and said i want you to ne The ringmaster. Ringmaster sucks, he knew that but it was a foot in the door and became stone cold steve austin toughest SOB in history, being o off by triple h and the rock and etc.