Steve Austin born Steven James Anderson and later Steven James Williams ; December 18, , better known by his ring name " Stone Cold " Steve Austin , is an American media personality, actor, producer and retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE , as an ambassador. 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 s and early s.
Austin began his professional wrestling career in , after playing college football at the University of North Texas. In the WWF, Austin was repackaged as a short-tempered, brash and brazen 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.
He is also a record three-time Royal Rumble winner, won the King of the Ring , and headlined multiple WWF pay-per-view events, including its flagship event WrestleMania four times 14 , 15 , 17 and He was forced to retire from in-ring competition in after multiple knee injuries and a serious neck injury at the SummerSlam event, making sporadic appearances ever since.
His mother moved to Edna, Texas , where Austin would spend most of his childhood, [ 6 ] and she married Ken Williams in The first wrestling events Austin watched were those produced by Houston Wrestling and run by Paul Boesch , [ 14 ] 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. 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". The name change occurred to avoid confusion with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams , a well-known wrestler during that time.
