We know Stone Cold Steve Austin today as…well, Stone Cold Steve Austin. However, every great started somewhere. They all had some kind of debut. Let’s take a look at Steve Austin’s WWE debut as The Ringmaster on WWE RAW in December 1995 against Matt Hardy.
Tale of the Tape: Steve Austin and Matt Hardy
The two involved in this bout aren’t strangers to anyone who has watched wrestling for about a year. You’ve at least heard of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Matt Hardy even if you haven’t seen a full match. These two were stars of the Attitude Era during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Of course, Austin was at the top and Hardy had worked his way up from scrub duty but he would become one of WWE’s memorable names. Both would become World champions with Austin ruling the roost as WWE champion during this period while Hardy would become ECW champion in 2009 and TNA World champion in 2015 and 2016.
Sure, Hardy’s reigns severely lack the impact of Austin’s reigns but he achieved them.
Austin spent the bulk of 1995 working for WCW and touring with New Japan before an injury took him out of action. He was fired from WCW and appeared for ECW in late 1995. It would be his angles in ECW that kept him active and on radars after his release and he was scooped up by WWE.
Why did he have to be The Ringmaster when he came in? Who knows. What is known is that Austin’s approach was aggressive wrestling with a little brawling mixed in. Stone Cold wouldn’t go, full brawler, until he suffered his neck injury at SummerSlam 1997.
As for Matt Hardy, this guy was kind of the same as he is now. Hardy was obviously lighter and faster in 1995 and was basically an early 90s high flyer. He wasn’t a daredevil or “spot monkey”. Hardy took his dives and risks carefully. He also didn’t have a trunk full of crazy dives and splashes. His style was such that he could work with anyone easily without them having to work around him.
The Ringmaster vs. Matt Hardy: WWE RAW 12/18/1995
So, Stone Cold Steve Austin just turned 31 the day he showed up with The Million Dollar Man to spank Young Matthew in Newark, Delaware. The show would air roughly a month later but never mind that. We’ve got green trunks-white boots Austin here and he has a pretty even debut with Matt Hardy.
This wasn’t squash or anything. I mean, Hardy did get spanked but he got in some offense. Austin is really picking Hardy apart with just rough rule-breaking tactics and using all of the referee’s DQ count. Hardy’s offense typically comes in the way of counters when Austin becomes cocky after downing him.
Screw the Million Dollar Dream, that Stun Gun of Steve Austin should’ve been his finisher. It just appeared more effective and vicious than DiBiase’s hand-me-down finishing hold.
Overall, I liked this debut. It was an all-around basic match with nothing special but it was clean in that there were no botches of note and both men looked good for different reasons. Hardy didn’t look like a sack of wet hamburger meat just getting pummeled out there and Austin looked vicious, safe, and effective in the match.
If you were watching at that time–or even now–you wouldn’t notice that you were watching something featuring two future legends. You were looking at a guy who was good with a meh gimmick beat a guy who could be good but was going to be beaten 100-percent.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unO241TzQHk
