10 WWE superstars who benefitted from controversy

#9 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin

Austin pushed many boundaries, and some people didn't like that...

‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin was a controversial character for quite some time, even though he was so wildly popular. Austin’s anti-authority gimmick, a penchant for flipping people off and on-screen alcoholism made him the perfect antihero through which millions of fans wanted to live vicariously.

But those things also made Austin quite controversial among some of wrestling’s more noted critics. Various parents’ groups and family organizations were highly critical of WWE during its peak years, and Austin was one of their most frequent targets for criticism.

Of course, WWE turned this controversy into something of their benefit and presented Austin as even more of an anti-authority badass that didn’t give a damn about what others thought of him.

So even though there were some people calling for WWE’s programming (on which Austin was the centrepiece) to be censored or cancelled, Austin and WWE took advantage of this and made more money off Austin’s success and widespread popularity.