This week we’re doing the toughest S.O.B. in the wrestling industry, the Texas Rattlesnake, the bionic redneck - Stone Cold Steve Austin. Thanks to everyone that voted him being this weeks list, there will be another poll at the end for next weeks superstar. These collection of matches comes from Dave Meltzer (his matches feature his ratings for matches rated 3 ½ Stars and matches that I believe that are also good too (these matches will be included in honourable mentions). If you have any suggestions for matches that could be included simply privately message me or add a comment on this and I will considerate it. Please read the entire list before commenting saying I’ve forgotten a match when it’s already on the Honourable Mentions. Also since a few people have commented on these posts saying 'stop throwing lists at us with no information' so on a few matches I’ve added a little bit of a backstory for new fans/fans of who haven’t seen the matches, some match details do contain spoilers, so you have been warned, but really if you’re getting up in arms about a match spoiler from several years ago that’s not my problem. I have also tried to add a link to each match as well, videos come from either WWE Network, YouTube and Daily Motion. Lastly, and most importantly, I used Meltzer’s ratings as a guide but make sure to make your own opinion (or rating in this case) about the matches. Just cause he gives something a 3, doesn't mean that it isn't a 5 to you! If you do not like this list because I’ve based it off ratings, that is not my problem. Alright, now lets start the list:
1991:
1992:
- The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko & Rick Rude) Vs Sting's Squadron (Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Ricky Steamboat & Sting) - WCW WrestleWar 1992 – 5* - Austin’s first, but not last 5 star match in his career. The mix of both teams with fantastic counterparts for each opponent is good. People don’t really rememeber Austin’s pre-WWE work, I highly recommend everyone watches this match which features the pay off to Paul Heyman’s assembly of the ‘Dangerous Alliance’.
1993:
- The Hollywood Blondes Vs Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas – WCW Clash of The Champions XXII – 3 ¾* - Whilst making this list, it was fun to watch matches I had never seen before and this one especially. It’s a fun short match featuring great wrestlers, especially the ‘Franchise’ Shane Douglas.
- The Hollywood Blondes Vs Arn Anderson & Ric Flair – WCW Clash of the Champions XXIII – 4* - Two great tag teams in the early 90’s WCW days doing battle to see who the best team is. The two newbies (Austin/Pillman) face off against two of the greatest of all time (Anderson & Flair) and you just know they learnt from the two of them. They compete in a 2 out of 3 falls match, who wins? Watch it and find out. Highly recommend this match for Austin’s earlier work.
- Steve Austin Vs Brian Pillman – WCW Clash of the Champions XXV – 3 ¾* - Two former best friends and tag team partners who know each other better than anyone face off in the 25th annual Clash of the Champions event – highly recommend.
1994:
- Steve Austin Vs Ricky Steamboat – WCW Bash at the Beach 1994 – 3 ¾* - This match was featured on WWE 2K16 as part of Austin’s Showcase but it just shows that it still holds the test of the time. Austin faces Steamboat who I believe is one of the greatest of all time, you know he learnt a few things from him.
1996:
- Stone Cold Vs Bret Hart – WWF Survivor Series 1996 – 4 ½* - The build up to this match was purely just Austin talking smack about Bret Hart for months on end about how much better the was and how Bret Hart wasn’t that good anymore. This is their first match in their series of matches, and I think it’s on par with their ‘Mania match.
1997:
- Stone Cold Vs Bret Hart – Wrestlemania 13 – 5* - This match definitely earned the rating it got from Meltzer, it was a Submission match and it was obvious at the time that Austin lacked a lot of submission material, however - both the superstars brought their A–game, and the psychology and storytelling during the match was absolutely amazing. The ending is absolutely fantastic and a great lasting image. Bonus Austin commentating this match
- Stone Cold Vs Bret Hart – WWF In Your House 14: Revenge of the ‘Taker – 3 ¾* - This match is their underrated (sort of forgotten) third and final match in the series.
- Stone Cold Vs Shawn Michaels – WWF King of the Ring 1997 – 4* - This match features Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold who were tag teaming around this time facing the likes of the Hart Foundation & L.O.D. but there still bad blood between them. They are actually tag team champions walking into this match with each other. I’ve always thought this match was one of Austin’s best ones and it’s definitely better then their Wrestlemania 14 match. However, I wish they would have an ending with a decisive winner.
1998:
- Stone Cold Vs The Undertaker – WWF Summerslam 1998 - 3 ½* - This is the epitome of the Attitude Era for me in regards to 1998, this was the match that felt like it had the most built to it. The Rock wasn’t a made star yet, so it made sense Austin would phenom of the WWE, the Undertaker on the Highway to Hell.
1999:
- Stone Cold Vs The Rock – Wrestlemania 15 – 3 ½* - After having the title stolen from him back in late-September of 1998, the rest of Austins year saw him going through a back and forth battle with Vince McMahon and his Corporation. Good match between the two, but not their best match. Infamously, Austin always mentions that he forgot to bring his standard vest for a match because he was in a rush and dealing with a divorce at the time. This would be their first of three matches at Wrestlemania.
2000:
- Stone Cold Vs The Rock Vs The Undertaker Vs Kurt Angle Vs Triple H Vs Rikishi – WWF Armageddon 2000 – 4 ½* - If you think of the attitude era, and don’t think of this match you’re crazy. It’s a straight up brawl with the top wrestlers at the time (and Rikishi). Really around this time a lot of the WWF fans loved multi-man matches so WWF just decided to put their top 3 feuds all in one match, lock them inside a Hell in a Cell and let chaos havoc.
2001
- Stone Cold Vs Triple H – WWF No Way Out 2001 – 4 ¾* - This was the build up for over a year, it dates back to when Triple H arranged the hit and run of Stone Cold Steve Austin back in 1999. It’s one of my favourite Stone Cold matches, and was quite interesting to see Triple H actually win two straight falls for two big reasons. One reason being that Triple H was the heel, therefore most people expected Stone Cold to finally get his comeuppance on Triple H, and the second reason was Stone Cold was in the main event for Wrestlemania 17; so most people expected he would win to build him up for that match. What makes this even better is that these two men ‘hated’ each other and within a few months the whole landscape of their rivalry would be different.
- Stone Cold Vs The Rock – Wrestlemania X-7 – 4 ½* - These two men were competing in a rematch from Wrestlemania 15, two years prior to this. To get this Wrestlemania 17, Austin returned from almost a year away from to win the 2001 Royal Rumble, and The Rock had to defeat Kurt Angle the month prior to this at No Way Out. This is miles ahead better then their former ‘Mania match, these two were the two top men in the attitude era. Fun match, with what is arguably one of the best Wrestlemania’s of all time a complete stacked card. Arguably the most loved match out of their trilogy of Mania matches. For many people this was also the end of the Attitude Era especially with who shocked they were with the ending of Stone Cold turning heel by aligning himself with the devil himself – Vince McMahon.
- Two-Man Power Trip Vs Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho – Raw 21/05/2001 – 4 ¾* - One of (if not) WWE's greatest 2 on 2 Tag Team match this match could’ve main evented any WWE PPV at that time. Austin and HHH were now working as a tag team and reaking havoc on all the wrestlers male or female at this time. This was also the way to have Benoit and Jericho gradually gain some credit as top-WWF stars.
- Stone Cold Vs Kurt Angle – WWF Unforgiven 2001 – 4* - This match isn't rated higher than their Summerslam match, but for personally I’d have it the other way around. This is one of my favorite matches from 2001. This was a rematch to their Summerslam match, and it was absolutely great. It was a feel good moment for wrestling fans, and a feel good moment for Americans as Kurt Angle in his hometown of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania would go onto win another WWF Championship, as it was just a few weeks after the whole 9/11 Terrorist Bombings. Taking away from that, these two men work very well with each other and it’s a very back and forth match.
2003:
- Stone Cold Vs The Rock – Wrestlemania XIX – 4* - This was Stone Colds last ever professional wrestling match and oh boy was it fantastic. It’s very fitting that the last match is between his greatest rival – The Rock. Obviously, this is their final match in their series of ‘Mania matches and for me personally I think it’s the best of the three matches.
Honourable Mentions:
- Steve Austin Vs Mikey Whipreck – ECW November to Remember 1995 - Probably Steve Austin’s most known match whilst he was signed to ECW, would’ve been nice if he won the ECW Championship and had a reign.
- Stone Cold Vs Savio Vega – Wrestlemania 12 - Austin’s first Wrestlemania.
- 30 Man Royal Rumble Match – WWF Royal Rumble 1997 - Austin’s first Royal Rumble win – however unfortunately he’d do it in cheating fashion and due to Shawn Michaels getting injured he would not secure his Main Event Championship match at Wrestlemania.
- Stone Cold Vs The Undertaker – WWF In Your House: A Cold Day In Hell - Great match between these two, very underrated whenever people talk about these two best matches.
- Stone Cold Vs Brian Pillman – Raw 16/06/1997 - The two former Hollywood Blondes Tag-Team face off on an episode of Raw.
- Stone Cold Vs Owen Hart – WWF Summerslam 1997 - One of the main reasons Stone Cold was forced to retire was due to a botched Piledriver caused by Owen Hart in this match.
- 30 Man Royal Rumble Match – WWF Royal Rumble 1998 - Austin’s second Royal Rumble victory, however this time he gets an opportunity at the WWF Championship in the main event of Wrestlemania.
- Stone Cold Vs Shawn Michaels – Wrestlemania 14 - Austin’s first WWF Championship.
- 30 Man Royal Rumble Match – WWF Royal Rumble 2001 - Austin’s third and final Royal Rumble victory – with this win he is the only man to win three Royal Rumble matches in history.
- Stone Cold Vs Rob Van Dam Vs Kurt Angle – WWF No Mercy 2001 - A very underrated/forgotten Triple Threat match that no one really brings up – I love this match and it’s probably in my top WWE 10 Triple Threat Matches.
- Stone Cold Vs The Undertaker – Backlash 2002 - This was one of Austins last matches in WWE before he ‘took his ball and went home’.
- Stone Cold Vs Eric Bischoff – No Way Out 2003 - This was Austins return to WWE after leaving WWE for just over 6 months, people were hoping we’d have great Austin matches with the likes of Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and many others. However, the night before Wrestlemania 19 Austin was rushed to hospital and following his Wrestlemania 19 match it was announced that he would have to retire due to injury.
Wrestlers in the most matches with Stone Cold
| Wrestler | Number of Matches |
|---|---|
| Nikita Koloff | 1 |
| Shane Douglas | 1 |
| Tom Zenk | 1 |
| Ric Flair | 1 |
| Paul Roma | 1 |
| Vader | 1 |
| Jim Neidhart | 1 |
| Rikishi | 1 |
| Booker T | 1 |
| Bubba Ray Dudley | 1 |
| D-Von Dudley | 1 |
| Diamond Dallas Page | 1 |
| Rhyno | 1 |
| Steve Williams | 1 |
| The Great Muta | 1 |
| The Sandman | 1 |
| Jake Roberts | 1 |
| D-Lo Brown | 1 |
| Mr. McMahon | 1 |
| Eddie Guerrero | 1 |
| Rob Van Dam | 1 |
| Eric Bischoff | 1 |
| Arn Anderson | 2 |
| Marc Mero | 2 |
| Mikey Whipreck | 2 |
| Shawn Michaels | 2 |
| Billy Gunn | 2 |
| Road Dogg | 2 |
| Big Show | 2 |
| Barry Windham | 3 |
| Sting | 3 |
| Savio Vega | 3 |
| Davey Boy Smith | 3 |
| Chris Benoit | 3 |
| Brian Pillman | 4 |
| Owen Hart | 4 |
| Mick Foley | 4 |
| Kane | 4 |
| Chris Jericho | 5 |
| Bret Hart | 5 |
| Dustin Rhodes | 6 |
| Triple H | 6 |
| Kurt Angle | 6 |
| Ricky Steamboat | 7 |
| The Rock | 10 |
| Undertaker | 12 |
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