Stone Cold Steve Austin reached peak popularity in the late 1990s by impersonating the gimmick of “Stone Cold Steve Austin”, an irreverent anti-beer drinker who routinely challenged the despotic federation leader Vince McMahon:
this character has been described as the symbol of Attitude Era, one of the best boom periods in WWF history, and the “face” of the federation for four years:

 
speaking of its power to attract audiences McMahon and Jim Ross have indicated Austin as the most profitable wrestler in the history of the federation, so much so that in 1999 alone he managed to bring over 15 million dollars to the WWF coffers only with the sale of his shirts.

Austin has main evented multiple pay-per-view events for the WWE, including three WrestleManias (XIV, XV and X-Seven). He was forced to retire from in-ring competition in 2003 due to a series of knee injuries and a serious neck injury.

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 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009 by Vince McMahon.

In 2011, Austin returned to WWE to host the reboot of the reality series Tough Enough. During a long interview with Peter Rosenberg of ESPN, he talked about working with Vince McMahon: “Vince can read a crowd, and he plays to that crowd, and he just loves to be, as a heel, he would love to be hated so much, and of course, I was so over as a babyface, it magnified, what I did magnified what he did and what he did magnified what I did, so just great chemistry. Pretty much always on the same page”.

How Steve Austin convinced Vince McMahon to stop editing him in WWE

Despite both Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon featuring in arguably the most iconic feud in WWE history, the behind the scenes relationship couldn’t be more different.

The dissent they shared for one another every week was welcomed by the fans, and it’s the rise of The Texas Rattlesnake that allowed the company to reach new heights and eventually, put WCW out of business.

ATTITUDE ERA SUCCESS
As fans will know, transforming into Stone Cold was far from a smooth ride.

He was a mid-card superstar – at best – during his time in WCW as well as ECW, but the brazen, beer-drinking antihero is the character fans ended up loving to such an extent that he became the poster boy of WWE during the Attitude Era.

In WWE today, fans are actively searching for the star that can become the next Stone Cold, and it’s usually difficult to find because there are more restrictions on today’s programming.

However, it wasn’t easy for Austin either, as he recently revealed to Lilian Garcia on her Chasing Glory podcast that he had to convince McMahon to let him be himself.

In other words, Vince was heavily editing Austin on-screen – and that held him back.

He revealed that although it can be an intimidating prospect to walk in and talk to Vince, it took one comment for Vince to let Austin be himself and the rest is history.

CONVINCING THE BOSS
According to Still Real To Us, he said: “At a very early stage I wasn’t afraid to ask. Don’t get me wrong, me and Vince got to be very very good friends, but as you know, talking to Vince or developing a relationship with Vince is a very intimidating thing when you first walk in there.

“I knew after seven and a half years that I needed to take care of my ass. So I had the wherewithal to talk with Vince McMahon and establish a relationship with him and offer my thoughts and ask questions to the man himself.

“Like I told him, my response to him was, ‘Vince, you got guys here 6’10, 7 feet tall, 300 to 330 pounds,’ I said, ‘I’m 6’2, 250, black trunks, black boots. If you take my personality, from me, I can’t compete. If you give me my personality, I can compete with anyone you got.’ And he says, ‘Okay Steve.’

“And then he stopped editing me, and that’s when we starting flying. You got to control your destiny. You can’t just hang it up and say, ‘Hey, creative ain’t got nothing for me.’”

Thankfully, Vince did let him off the leash as an unedited Austin went on to take the company to newer heights – and made Vince a lot of money in the process.

It’s also a message to those that seem to be stuck with no plans in WWE – go and make creative demands to succeed rather than sitting in mid or lower card obscurity.

What do you make of the way Steve Austin convinced Vince McMahon to stop editing him on television? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.