'Stone Cold' to join WWE Hall of Fame

January 13, 7:50 PMPro Wrestling ExaminerMark Satrang

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Last night on Monday Night RAW it was announced that Stone Cold Steve Austin would be the first entrant into the class of 2009 WWE Hall of Fame. The WWE Hall of Fame is held the night before the company’s flagship yearly event – WrestleMania. This year’s WrestleMania and Hall of Fame ceremony will be held the weekend of April 4 – 5 in Houston, Texas.

The WWE Hall of Fame has become such an incredible part of the now annual WrestleMania week of festivities. It is not a true hall of fame in the sense of other prestigious Hall of Fame. Inductees are chosen via WWE upper management arbitrarily based on politics, event location, current upcoming projects and other wildly varying factors, rather than voted on by a panel of experts, peers and judges. However it is the most well-known and widely recognized professional wrestling hall of currently in existence.

Stone Cold Steve Austin is the biggest moneymaker in World Wrestling Entertainment. After working his way through the independent circuit across the United States in the early ‘90s, he started gaining success in World Championship Wrestling. After being fired from WCW, he made his debut in the then-WWF in late 1995 under the guise of “The Ringmaster.”

By early ’96, Austin was allowed to mold his own character and became the foul-mouthed, anti-authority hell-raiser named “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Despite his foul language, bad attitude, middle fingers and lone wolf mentality, the crowds took to Austin and he became the fans’ choice. Austin was responsible for leading WWE into their most profitable time period ever, the “Atittude” era, which ran roughly from the beginning of 1997 until WrestleMania XVII in March 2001. In fact it was his win at King of the Ring ’96 and his infamous “Austin 3:16” victory speech that really helped usher in the era.

Austin's presence during that time changed the company’s mentality of the “good guy versus bad guy” and brought in the concept of “shades of grey.” The company took on more adult themed storylines, turned up the violence and brought in more “T & A.” His feud with WWE owner “Mr. McMahon” brought the company to its highest points in history. By the time the smoke had cleared and Austin had retired from active competition after WrestleMania XIX, he had won six World Championships, two Intercontinental Championships, two United States Titles, and a total of five World Tag Team Championships.

Austin is “the” wrestling superstar of the 1990s and in regards to money made in the industry he is only compared to Hulk Hogan. His induction into the WWE Hall of Fame is more than well-deserved, and the fact that he is being inducted in his home state of Texas only makes it that more special.