During his biography on A&E, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, as well as the guests on the show, revealed ring names Austin almost had given to him.
When first starting out in the WWE, Steve Austin was christened “The Ringmaster”, and was managed by “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase.
However, it was soon shown to be a mistake. Austin was fantastic on the microphone, so partnering him with a mouthpiece was the wrong decision from the WWE.
Austin crafted a new gimmick, inspired by serial killer Richard Kuklinski. “The Ice Man” was a ruthless killer, and somebody who inspired the early Stone Cold gimmick.
While thinking of a nickname for the gimmick, the WWE gave Austin a list of names to consider. These have been noted as being some of the worst the company has ever suggested, with the complete list of Steve Austin’s proposed names below;
• Fang McFrost
• Snowman
• Otto von Ruthless
• Mr. Freeze
• Ice Dagger
• Cruel Luke
• Cool Cat
• Chilly McFreeze
The names were so bad that Mick Foley, one of the nicest and most creative stars in the business, claims he remembers more of Austin’s proposed names than his own – owing to how bad they were!
“That’s a tricky situation, when you’re fairly new in the company, Mr. McMahon has agreed to give you a character change and you’re given a list from creative. The fact that I can rattle off more of Stone Cold’s names than the terrible names that I was given, speaks to just how bad they were”.
